Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that Iran would deliver a "firm and decisive counterblow" to any American aggression towards the country, Tasnim reported on March 31.

Khamenei's strong words come a day after President Donald Trump's comments where he said there would be "bombing" Iran if it did not agree to nuclear disarmament, speaking with NBC News on a telephone call. 

"Our positions remain unchanged. They [US and Israel] threaten us with malicious actions, but if any malice is committed, they will certainly receive a firm counterblow," Khamenei said during his sermon after leading Eid al-Fitr prayers at Tehran's Grand Mosalla prayer grounds in the centre of the sprawling Iranian capital city.

Khamenei described Israel as "the only proxy force in the region" and called it a "corrupt usurping regime" that serves colonial powers through "warmongering, genocide and invasion of other countries."

"This criminal gang must be uprooted from Palestine and the region, and it will be uprooted. Working toward this goal is a religious, moral and humanitarian duty for everyone," he added.

The Iranian leader condemned what he called Western hypocrisy regarding terrorism, noting that while Western powers accuse regional resistance movements of terrorism, they support or ignore Israel's assassination operations.

"The United States and several Western countries defend such clear terrorist acts while the rest of the world merely watches," Khamenei said, referencing the assassinations of figures like Abu Jihad, Fathi Shaqaqi, Ahmed Yassin, and Imad Mughniyeh, as well as Iraqi scientists.

He also denounced Western indifference to the deaths of what he claimed were about 20,000 Palestinian children in less than two years, adding that people in Europe and America are protesting against Israeli and US actions "to the extent they are informed about these crimes."

Khamenei concluded his sermon with two key points: first, that any external aggression against Iran, "though unlikely," would receive a decisive response; and second, that if enemies attempt to create internal unrest as in previous years, "the nation will give a firm answer to those instigating sedition."

During a telephone interview with NBC on March 30, Trump also threatened “bombing” and “secondary tariffs” on Iran if the country did not make a deal with the US to ensure it did not develop a nuclear weapon.

“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,” he noted US and Iranian officials are “talking.”