The commander of Iran's Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards' elite black ops arm, said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump should address him when threatening the Islamic republic, Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam television reported.
"As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to Trump's threats. If he wants to use the language of threats, he should talk to me, not to the president [Hassan Rouhani]," Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was quoted as saying in the central city of Hamedan.
"We are near you, where you can't even imagine. Come, we are ready. If you begin the war, we will end the war," he warned.
Soleimani further mocked the U.S. president as displaying the ethics of "nightclubs and gambling halls."
The rhetoric between the leaders of the two nations has been steadily escalating since Trump pulled the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear accord in May.
On Monday, Trump said in a tweet responding to comments from Rouhani: "NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!"
Iran has dismissed Trump's warnings.
"Trump should know that we are a nation of martyrdom and that we await him," Soleimani said.
A war between Tehran and Washington would "destroy all that you possess," he continued. "You will start this war but we will be the ones to impose its end. Therefore you have to be careful about insulting the Iranian people and the president of our republic.
"You know our power in the region and our capabilities in asymmetric war. We will act and we will work," he said.
Soleimani further noted the Red Sea was not secure with the presence of American troops in the area.
The Red Sea is one of the most important trade routes in the world for oil tankers.
Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was temporarily halting all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb after an attack on two oil tankers by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
