‘We will knock them down’: Trump draws red line on Iran’s missile programme; Tehran fires back with warning

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that Iran will have to face “very powerful” consequences if it tries to rebuild its missile programme.This comes after reports that Tehran may be attempting to rebuild its ballistic missile programme at sites different from those targeted by US strikes earlier this year. However, this development is yet to be confirmed.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again. And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”“I don’t want to say it, but Iran may have been behaving badly. It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but if it is, they know the consequences. The consequences will be powerful, maybe more powerful than last time. Iran should have made a deal last time. I had given them an option,” he added.The US President also said that he has been reading reports suggesting Iran could be rebuilding weapons infrastructure, but not at the locations previously hit by US forces.“I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I’ve been reading, that they’re building up weapons and other things,” he said. “If they are, they’re not using the sites that we obliterated, but they’re using possibly different sites.”‘Any aggression will face an immediate harsh response’Meanwhile, a top political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader said that any aggression against the country would be met with an “immediate harsh response”, after Trump threatened to “eradicate” any attempt by Tehran to rebuild its nuclear programme.“Iran’s missile capability and defence are not containable or permission-based. Any aggression will face an immediate harsh response beyond its planners’ imagination,” Ali Shamkhani wrote on X.Earlier this year, the US bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran in an operation Trump has repeatedly described as a major success that “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.The strike on Fordow, a heavily fortified underground facility, reportedly involved the use of six 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs — weapons deployable only by the US Air Force’s B-2 stealth bombers.However, Netanyahu has recently warned that Iran is again expanding its ballistic missile activities and is expected to press for tougher action during talks with Trump.