U.S. Navy forces now gathered in the Persian Gulf region will be hit with “unimaginable reciprocal blows” if any attack is made on Iran, a top military aide to the country’s leadership said Sunday.

“Zionists” were also warned they face the same fate in the announcement.

General Rahim Safavi told the local Fars newsagency Iran has the ability to hit far beyond its borders and its enemies should take note. He said:

We are not the starter of any war and aggression against any country and this has several times been stated by Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei who is also commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces]. But if enemies, including the Zionists or the Americans, make a move against us at any level, we have a strong defense and deterrence power too and will hit unimaginable reciprocal blows on them and their interests and military bases.

He claimed Iran “is stronger than all its 15 neighbors, except Russia, in the military field,” and said Tehran and Moscow have joined together in a military alliance across the Middle East. Such is Iran’s claimed military might, the country “will inflict the most crushing and most surprising strikes on them not just in areas around the country but also beyond in the seas.”

This not the first time Iran has issued blood-curdling threats against its real and perceived enemies.

As Breitbart News reported, last month the U.S. military presence in the Middle East was dismissed as its “weakest in history” by a deputy commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.

Admiral Ali Fadavi, a deputy Guards commander, made the accusation but failed to add any evidence to back his claim.

“The Americans have been present in the region since 1833 and they are now at their weakest in history in West Asia,” Fadavi is alleged to have said.

Tehran has previously described U.S. military moves as “psychological warfare” and a “political game”designed to hurt the Iran people.

The White House announced in May it would send the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers into the Persian Gulf to counter Tehran. The Lincoln is now on on station for its new assignment, as Breitbart News reported.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is a Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Commissioned in 1989, it has berthing to carry over 6,000 officers and enlisted sailors. At 332 meters (1,092 feet), it is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall.

The carrier has a 4.5-acre flight deck that carries F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, MH-60 Seahawk helicopters and other aircraft.

Two weeks ago a top commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. said the United States “wouldn’t dare to launch military action against us.”

He was backed by an Iranian cleric who alleged a U.S. Navy force in the Persian Gulf could be entirely destroyed with ease.

“Their billion [-dollar] fleet can be destroyed with one missile,” Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai Nejad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

“If they attempt any move, they will… [face] dozens of missiles because at that time [government] officials won’t be in charge to act cautiously, but instead things will be in the hands of our beloved leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]” added Nejad, who is the supreme leader’s representative in Isfahan.