Iranian general raises prospect of response amid US strikes on Houthis
LONDON -- An Iranian general warned on Sunday of the potential for a "decisive and devastating" response to any executed threat, a day after the U.S. conducted strikes on Houthis in Yemen.
Gen. Hossein Salami also denied that Iran had backed the rebel group, which continues to wage a campaign against international ships in the Red Sea and off the Yemeni coast.
"We are not a nation to live in hiding. We are a valid and legitimate system in the world. We announce it if we attack anywhere," Salami said in a speech broadcast in Farsi.
The general did not say Iran had been threatened, but that the country would offer a "decisive and devastating response to any threat" against it.
Salami's words echoed those of President Donald Trump, who announced on Saturday he had ordered the U.S. military to launch a "decisive and powerful" strike against the Houthis in Yemen.
"They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft and drones," Trump said. "We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective."
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that U.S. air and naval assets hit dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars, and drone and air defense systems. The official characterized the attacks as an opening salvo against the Houthis, and it sends a strong message to Iran.
On Sunday, the Houthis claimed a retaliatory attack they said targeted the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier with "18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone." However, a U.S. official told ABC News this wasn't true. The Houthis said in a statement that it "will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea in response to the aggression against our country."
Yemeni health officials said the U.S. campaign had killed some 53 people, along with injuring another 98 people. Many of the wounded were "children and women," the Ministry of Health in Sana'a said on Sunday morning.
National security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday morning that the U.S. strikes "took out" multiple Houthi leaders.
Waltz said the strikes were more significant than those conducted during former President Joe Biden's time in office, which the national security adviser criticized as "feckless."
"This was an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible," Waltz added.
Asked if there was any chance of direct U.S. military action against Iran, Waltz replied, "All options are always on the table with the president, but Iran needs to hear him loud and clear." Iranian support for the Houthis, militias in Iraq, Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups "is completely unacceptable" and "will be stopped," Waltz said.
Trump has made clear that Iran "cannot have a nuclear weapon," Waltz continued. "All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one, and that's all aspects of Iran's program. That's the missiles, the weaponization, the enrichment. They can either hand it over and give it up in a way that is verifiable, or they can face a whole series of other consequences."
"But either way, we cannot have a world with the ayatollahs with their finger on the nuclear button."
ABC News' Luis Martinez, Selina Wang, Kelsey Walsh, Hannah Demissie, Quinn Scanlan and Ahmed Baider contributed to this report.
