Iran has warned Donald Trump to ‘be careful not to be eliminated’ after the US President said he did not believe the regime’s new Supreme Leader can ‘live in peace’.
Mr Trump told Iran to brace for ‘death, fire and fury’ for keeping the Strait of Hormuz shut before threatening its new leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
He told Fox the new Supreme Leader will be unable to ‘live in peace’ and he was ‘not happy with the appointment’, having warned Iran he would have the final say over their leader.
But the regime’s security chief Ali Larijani dismissed Mr Trump’s comments, claiming Iran ‘is not afraid of your empty threats’.
He added: ‘Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Take care of yourself not to be eliminated!’
Larijani’s threat comes just days after an Iranian operative was convicted for an assassination attempt against Mr Trump during the 2024 presidential race.
Mr Trump’s campaign was warned by national security officials that Iran was targeting him and had multiple kill teams inside the US.
Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national who was trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was found guilty of the assassination plot on Saturday.
In other dramatic developments:
- Donald Trump threatened to bring ‘death, fire and fury’ down on Iran if it were to cut off the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz
- US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday will be the ‘most intense day’ of attacks on Iran
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly announced that any Arab or European country that expels the ambassadors of the US and Israel will have ‘full authority and freedom’ to pass through the Strait of Hormuz
- Saudi Arabia’s oil company warned markets face ‘catastrophe’ over the strait’s disruption
- Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is ‘not done yet’ in Iran as its military is ‘breaking the bones’ of the Iranian regime
- Israel warned Lebanese residents to evacuate ahead of a fresh wave of strikes against Hezbollah
- Massive airstrikes hit Tehran with ‘unusually large’ explosions after Trump vowed to end war ‘very soon’
- Emmanuel Macron has insisted Cyprus can ‘count on France’ as he rubbed salt in the wound of Britain’s military embarrassment
- A tearful Iranian footballer was dragged onto the team bus as protesters in Australia tried to stop the women’s team from being forced home
The assassination attempt was planned to take revenge for the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani during Mr Trump’s first term in 2020, the department of justice said.