‘Decimate and destroy’: Trump threatens Iran if it seeks revenge for supreme leader’s death
President Donald Trump says the U.S. will “completely decimate and destroy” Iran if it tries to assassinate him in retaliation for the death of the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader.
The threat is Trump’s second to involve explicit targeting of Iranian civilians and comes three months after he said the U.S. was prepared to wipe out Iran’s 5,000-year-old civilization. “A whole civilization will die,” Trump said in April, although he later relented. Military and human rights experts said at the time that if he had followed through, he could be guilty of war crimes and even genocide.
In a late-night post Friday on Truth Social, Trump said that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat … to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States, in this case, ME!”
He added that 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.”
He concluded by invoking the name of God in Arabic: “PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has criticized Trump for referring to Allah, describing his comments as a “deranged mocking of Islam.”
Mourners call for Trump’s death
Trump’s threat was a response to calls for his death during this week’s funeral ceremonies for the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on Feb. 28 on the opening day of the war in Iran. Mourners carried signs threatening Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and at least one effigy of Trump being hanged, The Associated Press reported.
Following Trump’s social media post, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to avenge the killing of his father.
In a statement released on the social media app Telegram, Khamenei wrote: “We pledge to avenge the blood of the martyred leader and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers. Whether we are here or not, this will be achieved, and soon individuals among the freedom-seekers across the world will carry out part of this divine mission.”
In remarks on state television, according to the AP, Khamenei said revenge is “the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out.”
Ceasefire in doubt
The mutual threats emphasize the tenuous nature of a ceasefire agreement that the U.S. and Iran signed on June 14.
Both sides have launched attacks in recent days, and U.S. officials demanded that Iran issue a public statement saying the Strait of Hormuz is open and ships traveling through the shipping channel would not be attacked.
On Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. had agreed to Iran’s request to continue talks to end the war.
But, he wrote, the ceasefire is “OVER!”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
