Agencies TEHRAN

An advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has warned that Iran would have to acquire a nuclear weapon if attacked by the US or its allies following a threat by US President Donald Trump on Sunday with bombing and more tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear programme.

Iran also complained to the United Nations Security Council on Monday about "reckless and belligerent" remarks by President Trump. "We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself," Khamenei's adviser Ali Larijani told state TV.

"Iran does not want to do this, but ... (it) will have no choice," he added. The comments came after Iran's supreme leader Khamenei promised to hit back if Trump carried out a threat to bomb the Islamic republic if it did not make a deal to curb its nuclear programme.

Earlier, Trump had  told NBC said "there will be bombing" if Iran did not agree to a nuclear deal and also threatened to punish Tehran with what he called "secondary tariffs". "They threaten to do mischief," Khamenei said of the remarks during a speech for the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramzan. "If it is carried out, they will definitely receive a strong counterattack."

The message was sent to the UN Security Council in a letter by Iran's UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani which condemned what he called "warmongering provocations". "The Americans have at least 10 bases in the region around Iran, and they have 50,000 troops," warned General Amirali Hajizadeh, a senior commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Someone who is in a glass room shouldn't throw stones at anyone," the man in charge of Iran's ballistic missile programme said on state television on Monday.

"Since  he took oath in January, Trump reinstated his 'maximum pressure' policy, which in his first term saw the United States withdraw from a landmark agreement on Iran's nuclear programme and reimpose sanctions on Tehran. The US and other Western countries accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies, stating its enrichment is for peaceful purposes."