Iran warns of retaliation after Trump calls for Khamenei to be replaced
Iran’s military warned on Tuesday that Donald Trump should not take any action against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, days after the U.S. president called for “new leadership” in Iran, according to the Associated Press report from Dubai.
Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, said Iran would respond if any aggression was extended toward Khamenei. “Trump knows that if any hand of aggression is extended toward our leader, we not only cut that hand but also we will set fire to their world,” Shekarchi said.
The warning came after Trump described Khamenei in a Politico interview on Saturday as “a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” and added that “it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran.”
Crackdown on protests and an internet shutdown
The U.S. and Iran have been in high tension since Iranian authorities launched a violent crackdown on protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy on Dec. 28, the AP report said. The report said Trump has drawn two red lines for the Islamic Republic: the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations.
Although there have been no protests for days, the AP report said fears persist that the death toll could rise as information continues to emerge from a country that has been under a government-imposed shutdown of the internet since Jan. 8.
The AP report cited figures from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, saying the death toll had reached at least 4,519 people by Tuesday. The AP said it was unable to independently confirm that number.
The report also said Khamenei spoke on Saturday about the scale of casualties, saying the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blaming the United States.
Arrests, leniency window, and threatened punishments
The AP report said the Human Rights Activists News Agency put the number of arrests at more than 26,300. It said officials’ comments have raised fears that some detained people could face death in Iran, which the report described as one of the world’s top executioners.
The report said Iran’s national police chief, Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, told an interview carried by Iran’s state television that people who turn themselves in would get more lenient treatment than those who do not. “Those who were deceived by foreign intelligence services, and became their soldiers in practice, have a chance to turn themselves in,” Radan said. “In case of surrender, definitely there will be a reduction in punishment. They have three days to turn themselves in.”
The AP report said Radan did not elaborate on what would happen after the three days.
U.S. carrier headed west as officials stop short of saying where it is going
Separately from Iran’s warnings, the AP report described ship movements in the region. It said ship-tracking data showed the USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, passed through the Strait of Malacca by Tuesday.
A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west. The AP said naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, but said the heading and location in the Indian Ocean meant it was only days away from moving into the region.
The report said it would not be the first time a carrier strike group deployed to the Pacific was moved to the Middle East to address instability. It said the Abraham Lincoln was rerouted to the Middle East in 2024, and that last June the USS Nimitz strike group was ordered to the region.
Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to the report.