Iranian foreign minister: ‘Whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it’

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that “whoever starts a war with us will not be the one who finishes it.”

Zarif made the remarks in Tehran while standing alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who is in Iran as part of an effort to save the Obama-era nuclear deal, which the U.S. exited in 2018, The Associated Press reports.

“Mr. Trump himself has announced that the U.S. has launched an economic war against Iran,” Zarif said, according to the AP, adding that the U.S. “cannot expect to stay safe.”

“The only solution for reducing tensions in this region is stopping that economic war,” he said.

{mosads}The remarks come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Last month, the Trump administration deployed a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the Middle East. It cited “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran that were not publicly identified for the move. 

After previously threatening that war would be “the official end of Iran,” President Trump said last Wednesday that there’s “a chance” the U.S. military would take action against Iran.

–This report was updated at 2:28 p.m.