efe-epaWashington DC

President Donald Trump publicly warned Iran on Sunday "never" to threaten the United States again and said that if Tehran wants to fight that will be the "official end" of the Iranian regime.

"If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!" said the president on his official Twitter account amid growing tension between Washington and Tehran.

Later, in an interview with American news channel Fox News, the president admitted that he did not want to fight with Iran but warned that he will not allow the country to have nuclear arms.

"I don't want to fight. But you do have situations like Iran, you can't let them have nuclear weapons - you just can't let that happen," he said.

"With all of everything that's going on, and I'm not one that believes - you know, I'm not somebody that wants to go into war, because war hurts economies, war kills people most importantly - by far most importantly," he added.

The president also defended his decision to withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which was accompanied by the resumption of sanctions that had been lifted under the pact, but admitted he "had no idea it was going to be as strong as it was."

"It totally - the country is devastated from the standpoint of the economy," he said.

Trump issued his threat a few hours after the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said on Sunday that Iran does not fear a war but the US does.


Salami also warned that the entire Middle East could become "a powder keg" for Washington.



Last year, prior to bringing Bolton into the administration as one of his top advisers, Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal. More recently, Trump has tightened economic sanctions against Tehran and his administration says it has increased the US military presence in the region.


On the Iranian side, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iran's IRNA news agency in Beijing, where he was on an official visit, that "There will be no war because neither do we want a war, nor has anyone the idea or illusion it can confront Iran in the region."


