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US President Donald Trump sent a stark warning to Tehran overnight, saying the United States would “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran” should there be an assassination attempt against him.
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During funeral ceremonies this week for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – who died at the outbreak of the US-Iran conflict in February – many mourners took to the streets holding signs calling for the deaths of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“1,000 missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian government act on its threat,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account.
He then signed off the post with the phrase “praise be to Allah”, which he also did in a post threatening Iran last April.
On Friday, the US President said he had agreed to continue talks with Iran, but reiterated that a ceasefire outlined in the two nations’ June “memorandum of understanding” was over.
Under the terms of the provisional agreement, Washington and Tehran had agreed to cease hostilities. The US would remove its naval blockade of Iran while Tehran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and reaffirm that it “shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons”. The memorandum gave the US and Iran 60 days to achieve a final deal.
A series of retaliatory strikes between the two sides this week has threatened to undermine efforts to achieve a final agreement, however.
The exchange of fire came amid a continued dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil and gas transit chokepoint that has been at the centre of tensions between Washington and Tehran. Iran effectively closed the waterway after the war began in February, sparking chaos in energy markets and prompting further US military action.
US Central Command announced that its forces had launched a fresh wave of strikes against Iranian air defence and other military targets on Tuesday and Wednesday, in what it said was an effort to “further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping” in the Strait.
CENTCOM said around 170 targets were hit across the two days. In response, Iran attacked a number of US military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Iran insists it has ‘kept its word’
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said on Saturday that Iran had “kept its word” on a ceasefire.
“Iran has so far kept its word, unlike the so-called US Treasury Secretary who is violating Para 9 of the MoU,” he wrote in a post on social media. The US Treasury announced new sanctions against an Iranian financier and Iranian exchange houses on Friday.
Paragraph nine of the MoU states that, pending a final deal, Iran will “maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program” and that the US “will not impose any new sanctions” or “deploy additional forces in the region”.
“That violation follows other violations and missteps by the United States. Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance,” Araghchi added.
Araghchi is set to arrive in Oman on Saturday for talks on the strait, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
A British maritime agency reported multiple strikes on tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz this week.
On Tuesday, Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, blamed Iran for a strike on a Qatari vessel in the Strait, calling it an “unacceptable attack on the security & safety of international maritime navigation”.
Ansari added that Doha held Iran “fully legally responsible for this attack and for any resulting damages and consequences”, though Tehran denied the claim.
Iran’s Tasnim agency reported on Friday that a Qatari delegation was in Tehran to “try to reinforce Qatar’s role as a mediator following events on Tuesday.”
