FILE PHOTO: A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oil fields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Gulf, Iran, July 25, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/File Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) - United States threats to throttle Iran’s international oil trade can be easily answered, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday, according to the Tasnim news agency.

U.S officials are stepping up diplomatic efforts to pressure countries to stop importing Iranian oil.

“If the current capabilities of the Revolutionary Guards ... reaches the ears of the adventure-seeking president of America, he will never make this kind of mistake and will reach the understanding that an oil threat can be easily answered,” Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said, according to the Tasnim agency.

Jahari did mot specify how Iran might react to U.S. threats to its oil exports.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday backed President Hassan Rouhani’s suggestion that Iran might block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are stopped.

U.S-Iranian relations have been particularly strained since U.S. President Donald Trump broke with European allies in May and announced that the United States was pulling out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran.

Trump’s administration has also called on its allies to stop buying Iranian oil.