The escalating rhetoric from both leaders comes as the U.S. has sent a carrier strike group and air defense systems to the Middle East.

Donald Trump said Sunday that if Iran does not make a deal regarding its nuclear program, "we’ll find out” whether Iran’s supreme leader was correct to predict that a U.S. attack on the country would spark a regional war.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Sunday remarks on a potential war come as Trump has weighed military action against Iran in response to the country’s nuclear ambitions and the government’s bloody crackdown on protesters.