Iran has issued a threat to the US if it decides to launch military strikes: ‘You will reap the whirlwind’.
A giant mural has been unveiled in Revolution Square in central Tehran emblazoned with the flight deck of a damaged aircraft carrier in the style of the American flag.
But it carries the ominous message: ‘If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind’.
It appears to be a reference to the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln and guided-missile destroyers arriving in the region in the coming days.
Metro reported how the nation’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has already been moved to a high-security underground bunker.
Last week, US president Donald Trump said the warships were being moved ‘just in case’ he wants to take action following deadly protests and executions.
Teheran has been gripped by protests throughout January, with thousands killed in unrest over the collapse of the Iranian currency.
Iranian authorities claim around 3,000 people were killed but US human rights group HRANA says the number is around 4,600.
Trump said on Thursday: ‘We have a massive fleet heading In that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it.’
A senior Iranian official, speaking to Reuters under the condition of anonymity, warned any attack against Iran would be seen as ‘all-out war against us’.
In London, a former Iranian political prisoner is holding a hunger strike outside the US embassy until Trump unleashes military strikes.
Nasrin Roshan, 62, is refusing to eat and is calling on the US to ‘act now’ and to ‘stop playing with the Iranian people’.