A senior Iranian official warned, in remarks to Reuters on Saturday, that Iran “will treat any attack it is subjected to as an all-out war.”

The Iranian official expressed hope that the U.S. military buildup is “not intended for an actual confrontation,” stressing that the Iranian armed forces are on full alert to confront worst-case scenarios, and that the level of readiness in the country has reached its peak.

He added that Iran will, this time, treat any attack — “whether limited or wide, surgical or kinetic, or any other description” — as an all-out war, emphasizing that the response will be carried out “in the harshest possible manner.”

In this context, the Iranian official affirmed that any U.S. violation of Iran’s sovereignty or territorial integrity will be met with a response, without specifying the nature of that response.

He noted that a country facing continuous military threats from the United States “has no choice but to ensure the use of all its available capabilities to respond, and to attempt to restore balance against any party that dares to attack Iran.”

In the same context, the Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Mohammad Pakpour, stressed on Thursday that “the finger is on the trigger,” and that military readiness is “at its highest levels” compared to any previous time, pointing to “full readiness to carry out the orders of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sayyed Ali Khamenei.”

Iran has recently been facing U.S. and Israeli threats of military aggression amid ongoing sanctions.

The American President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the United States has a fleet heading toward Iran, saying, “I hope I won’t have to use it,” coinciding with the imminent arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier group and other military assets to the West Asia region in the coming days.