Iran's foreign minister warns US will ‘bitterly regret’ sinking of Iranian warship

WASHINGTON, DC: Iran’s foreign minister has warned that the United States will “bitterly regret” sinking an Iranian naval vessel, sharply escalating rhetoric as the widening conflict between Washington, Israel, and Tehran continues to unfold.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued the warning after a US Navy submarine torpedoed and sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean earlier this week, killing dozens of sailors and marking one of the most dramatic naval clashes of the ongoing conflict.

Iran condemns strike as ‘atrocity at sea’

The US will “bitterly regret the precedent it has set” after an American submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in an attack that left more than 80 sailors dead, the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister warned.

“The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores. Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” Abbas Aragchi wrote on X on Thursday. “Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.”

Iranian leaders have also framed the sinking as part of a broader campaign by Washington and its allies aimed at weakening or destabilizing the Islamic Republic.

“We are now on the verge of a great test, and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance,” Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli said in a message aired on Iranian state television on Thursday.

Pete Hegseth defends the attack on warship

The naval strike occurred amid a rapidly expanding conflict that began when the United States and Israel launched coordinated attacks against Iran in late February under the US operation known as Operation Epic Fury.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the ship “thought it was safe in international waters” before it was struck by a Mark 48 torpedo, which costs an estimated $4.2 million.

“Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo — Quiet Death,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth said the strike was the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II, when the USS Torsk sank a Japanese enemy vessel just one day before Japan’s surrender in August 1945.

“Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win,” he said.

The IRIS Dena was heading back to Iran from an eastern Indian port when it was hit, according to the Sri Lankan deputy foreign minister.