Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif CNN

Speaking to CNN in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Tuesday that the country is not scared of further US military action following the airstrike which killed top general Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

"We will defend our own territory, we will defend our people," Zarif told CNN's Fred Pleitgen. "The United States can defend the United States, but the United States cannot claim to be defending the United States several thousand miles away."

Zarif refused to be drawn into how Tehran might retaliate for Soleimani's killing, though experts have pointed to numerous US vulnerabilities across the region in countries where Iran has proxies and allies.

"We have people on our side in this region," Zarif said. "Beautiful military equipment doesn't rule the world, people rule the world. President Trump has to wake up to the reality that the people of this region are enraged, the people of this region want the United States out."

Iranians have taken to the streets in their hundreds of thousands in recent days to mourn Soleimani, most recently in the general's hometown of Kerman today.

"We are here, and we will not move," Zarif said. "We have been here for millennia, the United States is a newcomer."

Referencing Trump's threats of further strikes against Iran should Tehran respond to Soleimani's killing, Zarif said that Trump "has to apologize, he has to change course."