Rhetoric heats up between US, Iran

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top diplomat said today that any attack on his country over a drone-and-missile strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry will result in “all-out war,” further pushing up tensions across the Persian Gulf.

The comments by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif represented the starkest warning yet by Iran in a long summer of mysterious attacks and incidents following the collapse of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, more than a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the accord.

Zarif’s comments also appeared to be a response to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who a day earlier while traveling to Saudi Arabia referred to Saturday’s attack as an “act of war.”