A senior Iranian military official warned President Donald Trump on Tuesday that "we will set fire to the world" if any harm comes to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from U.S. military intervention.
Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, cultural deputy of Iran's armed forces general staff, dismissed remarks Trump made Saturday calling for regime change in Iran amid nationwide protests against the repressive Islamist regime. Trump also referred to Khamenei as a "sick man."
"We do not take Trump's noise very seriously," Shekarchi said, according to Iran International. "Trump knows that if a hand is stretched toward our leader, we will not only cut that hand off — we will set their world on fire. This is not a slogan."
Shekarchi added that Iran would leave "no safe place" for its enemies in the event of any attack.
Shekarchi's remarks are the latest threat this month by the Islamist regime against Trump and the United States should it intervene on behalf of protesters.
A timeline:
-- Jan. 2: Iranian officials, including Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Khamenei, warned that any U.S. intervention in Iran's domestic affairs would cross a "red line." Shamkhani wrote on X that "any intervening hand nearing Iran security ... will be cut off with a regret-inducing response." The comments followed a Truth Social post by Trump threatening to "rescue" protesters if Iran killed them violently.
-- Jan. 14: Iranian state television aired a segment showing a photo of Trump bloodied from the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The caption in Farsi read, "This time, it won't miss." The broadcast was widely reported as a direct assassination threat, and the Secret Service was made aware.
-- Jan. 15: Gen. Mohsen Rezaei of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and a member of Iran's Expediency Council, said: "Trump has said his hand is on the trigger. We will cut off his hand and his finger." He added that Iran would no longer accept a ceasefire if attacked.
-- Jan. 18: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on X that any attack on Khamenei would amount to a "declaration of war" and trigger a "full-scale war with the Iranian nation."
Trump did not address Shekarchi's comments while speaking Tuesday on the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of his second term. However, he repeatedly cited his administration's actions against Tehran, including a military strike in June on Iranian nuclear facilities.
"[We] obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capability," Trump said in remarks aired live on Newsmax and the free Newsmax2 streaming platform. "And Operation Midnight Hammer was one of the most successful anyone's ever seen."
Trump has sent conflicting signals this month as Iran's violent crackdown intensified, with human rights groups estimating thousands of protesters have been killed. He initially warned that the U.S. could intervene militarily if Iran continued killing demonstrators but later appeared to step back after saying he received information that Iran had halted executions, something he touched upon Tuesday.
"They were going to hang 837 people and we let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for them," Trump said. "And they decided not to do it. They didn't hang the people. I can't tell you what's going to happen in the future, but supposedly they've taken that off the table. ... So, we're just going to have to see what happens with Iran."
At the end of his remarks on Iran, Trump responded ambiguously, repeating a reporter's question — "Is the military option off the table?" — while shrugging, signaling he was not ruling it out.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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