WASHINGTON DC – United States President Donald Trump has threatened to “decimate and destroy all areas of Iran” if he faces any assassination attempt, as a statement from the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei says avenging his slain predecessor and father is “the demand of the nation” and “must certainly” take place.
“We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Khamenei wrote in the statement, which was read on state television. Khamenei, who senior sources have said suffered facial disfigurement and other injuries in the US-Israeli strike that killed his father and four other family members, has not been seen by Iranians since he was appointed supreme leader on March 8. There was no sign of him during the week-long series of processions and formal funeral events for his father that culminated in the former supreme leader’s burial late on Thursday.
At least 15 million people thronged the streets for funeral processions in Tehran and Qom in Iran, and Najaf and Karbala in Iraq, before the final burial in Mashhad late on Thursday. Iranian sources have claimed the total was more than 30 million. Banners and chants calling for Trump to be killed were widespread at the events.
In a typically bellicose post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump wrote: “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!”. He added: “Orders have already been given, and the U.S. Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran – PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”. Israel warned the US earlier in the week about a new and specific Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, US media reported.
Sources told CNN that the new Israeli intelligence detailed a highly specific, active plot. The Wall Street Journal also confirmed the threat was “fresh”. But despite his fiery rhetoric, and his insistence that the provisional ceasefire with Tehran has been over since Iranian attacks on Qatari and Saudi tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday led to US air strikes on Iran for two nights and retaliatory Iranian missile and drone attacks, Trump said talks on finalising a peace deal were continuing. (Aljazeera)
