Ali Larijani responds to US threat to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure, saying “the entire region will be left in the dark.”
Posted on March 12, 2026
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani warned the United States against escalating the war by attacking key energy infrastructure, after US President Donald Trump threatened to eliminate Iran’s electrical capacity “within an hour.”
“If they do that, the entire region will go dark in less than half an hour and the darkness provides ample opportunity to pursue American military personnel fleeing for safety,” Larijani said on X on Thursday.
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“While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets. We will not give in until we make you regret this serious miscalculation,” he added.
The comments come a day after Trump said the United States had largely neutralized Iran’s military capabilities in the US-Israel war against Iran, which began on February 28. “They don’t have a navy, they don’t have an air force, they don’t have anti-aircraft… We’re just flying over that country,” the US president told reporters in Maryland.
He warned that Washington could attack energy systems if it decided to intensify its military campaign. “We could dismantle their electrical capacity in an hour and it would take them 25 years to rebuild it,” he said.
Later, at a campaign rally in Hebron, Kentucky, Trump claimed that the United States had already “won” the war with Iran and must now “finish the job.”
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Thursday that approximately 6,000 targets had been struck in Iran since the US and Israel launched their first strikes 12 days ago.
More than 90 Iranian vessels were damaged or destroyed, including more than 60 ships, and more than 30 minelayer vessels were hit since the operation began, CENTCOM said.
Larijani’s comments came shortly after Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei delivered his first statement, in which he called for national unity and said the Strait of Hormuz, a key global maritime artery, would remain closed to put pressure on Iran’s enemies.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday it would not allow “one liter of oil” through the key Gulf waterway.
Global oil prices have fluctuated wildly this week amid continued US and Israeli attacks on Iran, which has responded by firing missiles and drones at targets across the Middle East.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said the United States was benefiting from rising oil prices. “The United States is by far the largest oil producer in the world, so when oil prices rise, we make a lot of money,” he wrote.
He added that it is of “greater interest and importance” to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons and “destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the world.”
