Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Monday that Israel would be targeted if it made any "small move" against his country.
This comes at a time when Tehran announced that an understanding with the major international powers on its nuclear file is still far from reach, accusing the United States of being responsible for its delay.
Addressing Tel Aviv, Raisi said - during a speech he delivered at an annual presentation of the Iranian armed forces that featured combat aircraft, helicopters, drones, air defense systems, as well as military tanks and missiles from naval ships - "If you commit the smallest move on your part against the state of Iran, the center of the Zionist regime will be a destination. our armed forces."
The Iranian president also stressed that Iran's military force is a "deterrent", pointing out that the Iranian army "managed to improve its capabilities despite years of sanctions on the country over Tehran's nuclear program."
Raisi did not elaborate, but said Iran was watching any move by Israel "closely".
A major talk came at a time when talks in Vienna on reviving Iran's nuclear deal with major powers signed in 2015, which Israel opposes, "does not do enough to curb Tehran's nuclear program or its military activities across the region", have stalled.
Today, the US State Department described Iran as "the largest supporter of terrorism in the world," noting that it will confront its destabilizing behavior in the region.
distant understanding
On the other hand, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that reaching a nuclear agreement with the Western powers was out of reach, blaming Washington for this situation.
Its spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said, "There is more than one outstanding issue between Iran and the United States. The messages conveyed by Mr. Enrique Mora (EU Coordinator) in recent weeks, before and after his visit to Tehran, are far from representing solutions that would allow talking about an agreement."
Mora, who is overseeing the talks in Vienna, is trying to iron out the remaining sticking points in order to reach a settlement.
Khatibzadeh added that "the United States is responsible for these delays because it is slow to give a response" that suits Iran.
To reach an agreement in Vienna, the Iranians demand the Americans remove the Revolutionary Guards from their list of "foreign terrorist organizations", which Washington has rejected so far.
Negotiations between the two parties, a year after they began in Vienna, failed to revive the 2015 agreement on Iran's nuclear program.
Following several optimistic statements about an imminent agreement in the Austrian capital, differences have resurfaced in recent weeks, mainly between Tehran and Washington.
The Vienna negotiations bring together Iran on the one hand, and France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China on the other, while the United States participates indirectly with mediation from the European Union.
Washington unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and re-imposed economic sanctions on Iran, and in response, Iran gradually abandoned the restrictions imposed on its nuclear program under the agreement signed between the two parties.