Trump Issues Stark Warning to Iran After Assassination Threats
US President Donald Trump has issued a stark military warning to Iran following scenes at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where mourners openly displayed banners calling for Trump's assassination alongside that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Writing on Truth Social in an overnight post, Trump stated that 'a thousand 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, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America.' He added that US forces would 'completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran — PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!' in such a scenario.
Strait of Hormuz Standoff Deepens
The threat came amid an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passed before the conflict began. Iran attacked three vessels in the waterway earlier this week, triggering several days of US airstrikes on Iranian targets and Iranian retaliatory strikes against Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. Senior US officials said the fresh hostilities were ignited by a hardline faction within Iran seeking to sabotage a fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
Tehran has refused US demands for a public declaration that the strait is open and safe for international shipping. Instead, Iranian officials have insisted the waterway falls exclusively under their jurisdiction, and that vessels crossing it must pay fees to Iran, a position that overturns decades of international consensus treating it as a shared corridor. Tehran's representative at the United Nations told reporters that any activity in the strait, 'including its opening or demining operations, rests exclusively with Iran.' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately accused Washington of violating the interim agreement by terminating waivers that had permitted Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars, writing on X: 'Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance.'
Nuclear Demands and Diplomatic Efforts
US officials speaking anonymously said Trump has placed a time limit on negotiations, while making clear that Washington holds military options in reserve should talks break down. Any nuclear agreement, the officials stressed, would require Iran to surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be stored at sites US forces bombed in 2025. Iran has consistently refused that demand, maintaining its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, despite the International Atomic Energy Agency noting it is the only country enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels without a declared weapons programme.
On the diplomatic front, Qatari mediators travelled to Tehran on Friday for talks with Iranian officials, and Araghchi was scheduled to meet his Omani counterpart in Oman on Saturday. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he believed 'a solution can be reached' over the weekend. Khamenei, who was 86, was killed in an airstrike on February 28 that marked the opening of the conflict. His successor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has insisted Iran's leadership remains unified.
Israel Shared Intelligence on Assassination Threat
Previously, Legit.ng reported that Israel passed intelligence to the United States warning that Iran recently devised a fresh plan to assassinate President Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter, as an already strained ceasefire between Washington and Tehran edges closer to collapse. One source said the warning arrived this week, describing it as a specific plot, distinct from the broader stream of assassination-related intelligence that American agencies had already been monitoring in recent weeks.
