Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed Tehran would not give up its arsenal of ballistic missiles despite acknowledging the weapons “make America so angry”.
And in a reference to Iran’s eight-year war with neighbouring Iraq in the 1980s, Rouhani said President Trump would be beaten if the US persists in its confrontation with the Islamic Republic.
Delivering a speech which coincided with the start of naval drills in the Persian Gulf and military parades in the capital Tehran, Rouhani said: “The same will happen to Trump. America will suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein.
“Iran will not abandon its defensive weapons… including its missiles that make America so angry.”
Relations between Iran and the United States have deteriorated in recent months after Mr Trump pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed tough sanctions.
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The US leader said the 2015 accord, which traded sanctions relief for curbs on Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, “should never have been made” because of its “significant flaws”.
Donald Trump said the deal went too easy on Iran and should have included further steps to curtail Tehran’s influence in the Middle East – including limits on its development of ballistic missiles.
Washington hopes its latest sanctions, which target oil exports as well as foreign firms doing business with Iran, will force the Islamic Republic back to the negotiating table.
But Tehran has signalled in recent weeks it is considering using its naval forces deployed in the Gulf to block all oil shipments from leaving the region in retaliation.
State media said about 600 vessels took part in the Gulf naval drill on Saturday, a day after Iran held aerial exercises in the waterway, vowing that a “pounding reply” awaited the country’s enemies.
Rouhani’s reference to the fate of Saddam Hussein and the Iran-Iraq war comes as the Islamic Republic commemorates the start of the conflict in 1980.
The protracted war of attrition between the neighbouring Middle Eastern countries cost the lives of at least half a million people as both sides struggled to break through the other’s defences.
Despite initial gains by Saddam Hussein’s forces, the Iraqis had been pushed back across their own border by 1982.
The brutal conflict bore some striking similarities to World War One as Iran made use of mass ’human-wave’ attacks against fortified Iraqi positions while Saddam ordered the use of chemical weapons.
A ceasefire was agreed in 1988. Both sides claimed victory but neither side achieved its objectives.