US President Donald Trump said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be very careful about what he says after Khamenei harshly criticized the United States in a Friday prayers sermon in Tehran.
"The so-called 'Supreme Leader' of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe," Trump said in a tweet.
"Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!"
Khamenei, said Friday that Western countries were too weak to "bring Iranians to their knees." Addressing Friday prayers for the first time since 2012, Khamenei said Iran was willing to negotiate, but not with the US.
Thousands had gathered inside a large prayer hall in central Tehran and packed the area and streets outside the building, chanting "Death to America."
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Khamenei called US President Donald Trump a "clown" who only pretends to support the Iranian people.
The US president will "push a poisonous dagger" into Iran's back, the ayatollah warned, adding that the outpouring of grief at the funeral for Iran's top general, Qassem Soliemani, who was killed in a US airstrike earlier this month, shows that Iranians support the Islamic Republic.
Khamenei said America had "cowardly" killed the most effective commander in the fight against the Islamic State group when it killed Soleimani in Baghdad.
In response, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting US troops in Iraq, without causing serious injuries.
"The fact that Iran has the power to give such a slap to a world power shows the hand of God," Khamenei said.
As Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps braced for an American counterattack that never came, it mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian jetliner shortly after it took off from Tehran's international airport, killing all 176 passengers on board, mostly Iranians.
He called the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane a "bitter accident" that saddened Iran as much as it made its enemies happy.
He also said that three European states who were party to a nuclear pact from which the US has already withdrawn "cannot be trusted," after Britain, France and Germany triggered a formal dispute mechanism in the agreement, which could lead to UN sanctions being reimposed.
The ayatollah has held the country's top office since 1989 and has the final say on all major decisions. The 80-year-old leader openly wept at the Soleimani's funeral and vowed "harsh retaliation" against the United States.
Khamenei last delivered a Friday sermon in February 2012, when he called Israel a "cancerous tumor" and vowed to support anyone confronting it. He also warned against any US strikes on Iran over its nuclear program, saying the US would be damaged "10 times over."
