President Donald Trump on Tuesday renewed his warning that Iran would be wiped “off the face of this earth” if Tehran were ever to succeed in assassinating the US leader.
The comments came amid an escalating exchange of threats, with both Iran and the United States warning of large-scale conflict should either country’s leadership be targeted.
“I have very firm instructions. Anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth,” Trump said during a News Nation interview aired on Tuesday, responding to a question about alleged threats against the 79-year-old president.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran issued its own warning regarding any potential threat to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian General Abolfazl Shekarchi was quoted as saying that Trump already understood Tehran’s position should such a scenario arise.
“Trump knows that if a hand of aggression is extended toward our leader, we will not only sever that hand, and this is not a mere slogan,” Shekarchi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
“But we will set their world on fire and leave them no safe haven in the region.”
Trump had issued a similar warning about Iran roughly a year ago, shortly after returning to the White House, when he told reporters, “if they do it, they get obliterated.”
Meanwhile, Iran continues to grapple with the fallout from some of the largest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Human rights organisations are still working to verify the number of deaths linked to the unrest, with the Human Rights Activists News Agency reporting more than 4,000 confirmed fatalities.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO said efforts to confirm casualties remain severely restricted due to communication limitations, but noted on Monday that available data “indicates that the number of protesters killed may exceed even the highest media estimates”, which reach 20,000.
The protests began in December as Iranians took to the streets to demand relief from economic hardship after the national currency fell to a record low under the leadership of the 86-year-old supreme leader, who has resisted democratic reforms for decades.
Members of Iran’s global diaspora, including exiled Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, have also called for US action against Iran’s ruling establishment.
Ebadi urged “highly targeted actions” against Iran’s supreme leader and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
