U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened Iran, saying it would be “wiped off the face of the earth” if it succeeded in assassinating him.
Amid a sharp exchange of threats, both Iran and the United States warned each other of launching a large-scale war should the leader of either country be assassinated.
In an interview with NewsNation aired Tuesday, Trump, 79, said in response to a question about threats to his life by Iran: “I gave very strict instructions. If anything happens, they will be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Earlier on Tuesday, responding to threats against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the spokesman for Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, said Trump knows in advance that Tehran will not hesitate to respond.
Shekarchi was quoted by Iranian state media as saying: “Trump knows that if the hand of aggression reaches our leader, we will not be satisfied with merely cutting off that hand—this is not just a slogan.”
He added: “We will set their world ablaze and leave them no safe haven in the region.”
Trump had issued a similar warning to Iran a year earlier, shortly after returning to the White House, when he told reporters: “If they do that, they will be wiped out.”
Iran remains affected by the aftermath of violence that accompanied some of the largest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based organization, said verifying the death toll from the crackdown remains difficult due to communication restrictions. On Monday, it said available data “indicate that the number of protesters killed may even exceed the highest media estimates,” which put the figure at around 20,000.
Iranians began organizing mass demonstrations last December to demand relief from economic hardship, after the national currency fell to record lows under the leadership of Khamenei, 86, who has rejected democratic reforms for decades.
Many members of Iranian diaspora communities abroad, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, who lives in exile, have called for U.S. intervention against the ruling establishment in Tehran.
Ebadi urged the adoption of “precise and targeted measures” against the Iranian Supreme Leader and leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
AFP
