Iranian officials and US President Donald Trump have traded some of their harshest threats yet, amid growing fears of military escalation against the backdrop of protests in Iran.
Gen Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces, warned that any hostile action against supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would trigger devastating retaliation.
The warning followed comments by Mr Trump to Politico in which he described Mr Khamenei as “a sick man” and said “it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran”.
“We do not attach significant importance to Trump’s clamour,” Gen Shekarchi was quoted by state media as saying on Tuesday.
However, he added that “Trump knows that if a hand of aggression is extended towards our leader, we will not only sever that hand − and this is not a mere slogan – but we will set their world on fire and leave them no safe haven in the region”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also warned the US that Tehran will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack”. His warning came in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
He added that “an all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe”.
For his part, Mr Trump said he had issued “very firm instructions” for the US to “wipe them off the face of the Earth” if Iran attempts to carry out assassination threats against him.
In an interview with NewsNation marking the anniversary of his second-term inauguration, the American leader said the US would retaliate against the entire country if Iran acted on its threats.
“If anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up,” Mr Trump said. “I would absolutely hit them so hard. I have very firm instructions.”
He also criticised former president Joe Biden for not responding more forcefully to Iranian threats during his presidency. “A president has to defend a president,” he said, adding that he would respond decisively even if threats were directed at “somebody, not even a president”.
Iranian security forces have been accused of killing thousands of people in a crackdown on economic demonstrations that began last month, while Tehran blamed “foreign agents” for the violence and announced the deaths of hundreds of security personnel. This raised tension with the US, with Mr Trump threatening to take military action in response.
Mr Trump threatened “very strong action” if Iran executed detained protesters. Last Friday, in a social media post, Mr Trump thanked Tehran's leaders, saying they had called off mass hangings. Iran said there was “no plan to hang people”.
The US last June carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, bringing an end to a war between Israel and Iran that devastated parts of the country and several Israeli cities. Since then, tensions have continued to rise amid increasingly direct and public threats from both sides.
