File photo: Hossein Salami, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). AFP
On Saturday, Trump said the United States had launched "decisive and powerful military action" to end the Houthi threat to Red Sea shipping and warned Iran's support for the rebels "must end immediately". A Houthi health official said the strikes had killed 31 people, including children.
Iranian Guards chief Hossein Salami denounced Trump's threats in a televised speech on Sunday, adding that "Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses".
The commander called the Houthis "the representative of the Yemenis", adding the group made its "strategic and operational decisions" independently.
In January 2020, during Trump's first term, the US killed the commander of the Guards' foreign operations arms, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike in Baghdad.
Days later, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at bases in Iraq housing American and other coalition troops. No US personnel were killed but Washington said dozens suffered traumatic brain injuries.
Earlier Sunday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei "strongly condemned the brutal air strikes by the US" in a statement, denouncing the "gross violation of the principles of the UN Charter".
Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said afterwards that Washington had "no authority" to dictate the Islamic republic's foreign policy.
"The United States Government has no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy," the foreign minister said on X while urging the United States to stop the "killing of Yemeni people".
Araghchi said the time when Washington could dictate Tehran's foreign policy ended in 1979, when the Islamic revolution ousted the Western-backed shah.
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