After meeting with Israel's Netanyahu, Trump said he'd heard Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear program, "and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down."

TEHRAN — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said his country’s answer to an attack would be harsh, which appeared to be in response to a warning by President Trump over reconstruction of Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran vowed to respond harshly after US president Donald Trump threatened to attack the country again over its weapons programmes.

On Friday, Trump warned that if Iran kills peaceful protesters, "the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."

Tehran also increasingly cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, as tensions increased over its nuclear program in recent years. The IAEA's director-general has warned Iran could build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program.

Protests fueled by crippling economic conditions have swept across Iran’s provinces in recent days, as authorities revert to their tested playbook of cracking down without offering viable solutions to grievances driving public anger.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a defiant response to President Donald Trump over the deadly crackdown on protests, forced to acknowledge the major unrest that has rocked his regime in Tehran,

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted that the Islamic republic would "not back down" in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost