Iran-US latest: Tehran tells Trump ‘it will respond like never before’ after president’s ‘armada’ threats

The FTSE 100 fell on Wednesday and the oil price climbed amid fresh geopolitical uncertainty while the S&P 500 briefly topped 7,000 for the first time ahead of tech earnings and the US interest rate call.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 53.37 points, 0.5%, at 10,154.43. The FTSE 250 ended 13.39 points lower, 0.1%, at 23,390.63 but the AIM all-share ended up 7.27 points, 0.9%, at 832.09.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran that time was running out for the Islamic republic to prevent American military intervention as Tehran rejected holding negotiations against a backdrop of threats.

Iran’s army chief of staff has said Iran is prepared to deal with any threat, and warns that “the enemy will surely suffer” if anything happens.

According to local media, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said: “The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran is always ready to deal with any threat and if something happens, the enemy will surely suffer a lot.”

Earlier today, Iran’s mission the UN said that the country was ready for dialogue.

“Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests—BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!”

Iran today executed a man accused of spying for Israel as tensions flared up with the US.

Mizan, the Iranian judiciary’s media outlet, reported that the suspect was identified as Hamidreza Sabet Esmaeilipour.

They said he was arrested in April last year and hanged on Wednesday “for the crime of espionage and intelligence cooperation in favour of a hostile intelligence service (Mossad)”.

Executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel have significantly increased since last year following the direct confrontation in June, when Israeli and US forces struck Iran’s nuclear facilities.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz joined in the American assessment that the Iranian regime’s “days are numbered” in comments on Wednesday as Trump ramped up his threats.

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, he said: “A regime that can only hold onto power through sheer violence and terror against its own population: its days are numbered.”

“It could be a matter of weeks, but this regime has no legitimacy to govern the country.”

He backed Italy’s push to have the EU designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organisation.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio said that Iran’s regime is probably the weakest it has ever been as the US moves warships into the region.

“That regime is probably weaker than it has ever been and the core problem they face … is that they don’t have a way to address the core complaints of the protesters, which is that their economy is in collapse,” he told the senate foreign relations committee.

US forces will carry out multi-day exercises in the Middle East, it was announced this week, ahead of Trump’s threat to Iran.

The Ninth Air Force will be carrying out drills to “demonstrate the ability to deploy, disperse, and sustain combat airpower across the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility”, a statement read.

The statement did not say when the exercises would start.

“This exercise reinforces peace through strength by fielding a credible, combat-ready, and responsible presence designed to deter aggression, reduce the risk of miscalculation and assure partners.”

The US navy calls it the “largest warship in the world”.

At 333m and with a displacement of 104,300 long tons, the USS Abraham Lincoln is a formidable vessel, currently heading for Iran.

An aircraft carrier, it is able to station 65 aircraft and multiple missile mounts, and can haul around 100,000 tones of equipment.

Its squadrons include the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet and the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets.

The ship can travel at up to 35 knots and hosts a crew of around 5,600 people.

In Isfahan, several political and human rights activists told Independent Persian that a number of detainees from the current uprising are being held in a warehouse near Dastgerd Prison that lacks basic facilities. The location reportedly lacks even basic sanitation and has no access to medical care.

Read the full harrowing report here:

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that while the recent protests in Iran may have ebbed for now, they will spark up again in the future.

Asked about the state department’s estimate on how many people were killed, he puts the figure in the thousands.