ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday addressed US President Donald Trump, telling the American leader he would not succeed in “eliminating” the Islamic Republic, just as his predecessors had failed to do.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said that a regime change in Iran is “the best thing that could happen,” noting: “For 47 years, they've been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we've lost a lot of lives.”

“The US President has said that for 47 years, the United States hasn’t been able to eliminate the Islamic Republic. That is a good confession. I say, ‘you, too, will not be able to do this,’” Khamenei said in a speech during an event marking the anniversary of the 1978 Tabriz protests on Tuesday.

Khamanei’s words come amid increasing US military maneuvers in the Gulf, with Trump mulling military action should negotiations with Tehran fail to bear fruit.

Reports of the US sending the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, to the Middle East were recently confirmed by the American president, seeking to back up the USS Abraham Lincoln already in the Gulf.

In response to the US naval buildup, the Iranian leader stated that while “a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware… more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.”

He further stressed that while Trump “keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world,” that same force “may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again.”

Iran and the US held another round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program on Tuesday in Geneva. The Iranian delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, while Special Envoy Steve Witkoff heads the American delegation.

Trump said late Monday that he will be “indirectly” involved in the second round of talks, warning that Iran would not “want the consequences of not making a deal.”

Tehran and Washington restarted indirect nuclear talks in Oman earlier this month, with both sides describing the first round of negotiations as positive.