Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday warned of a “regional war” if the United States attacked following heavy military deployments by Washington in the Gulf.

“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency. He said the recent anti-government protests that saw killings and vandalism were akin to “a coup”.

“They (rioters) attacked the police, government centres, IRGC centres, banks, and mosques, and burned the Koran... It was like a coup,” Khamenei said, adding that “the coup was suppressed”.

Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani said later on Saturday that progress had been made towards negotiations with the US. President Donald Trump confirmed the two sides were talking.

“(Iran is) talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens...We have a big fleet heading out there,” Trump told Fox News. “They are negotiating.” 

“Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing,” said Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. He was speaking a day after the Kremlin said he held talks with President Putin.