Iran Makes Veiled Threat to Trump: 'Be Careful Not To Get Eliminated' - TIME

A top Iranian security official made a thinly veiled threat against Donald Trump’s life on Tuesday after the U.S. President warned of massive strikes** **against Iran if it blocked oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

"Iran doesn't fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn't eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Ali Larijani, the head of the Iranian National Security Council, posted on X.

The threat came in response to Trump’s post on TruthSocial that if Iran doesn’t allow oil shipment to resume in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. would hit Iran “twenty times harder” than they have been hit so far.

“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back,” Trump posted, while adding that he prayed that it won’t happen.

Larijani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has played a central role in the country’s military response to the U.S.-Israeli attacks, leading the retaliatory strikes that have caused havoc in Israel and countries across the Gulf.

The threat comes after Israel assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, the first day of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran that is now entering its second week and has spiraled into a regional war.

Following the killing, Larijani vowed on national television to hold Trump responsible for Khamenei’s death.

The United States has accused Iran of making several attempts to assassinate Trump in recent years, which Iran has denied. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last Wednesday that the leader of a covert Iranian unit that planned to assassinate Trump was killed in a recent military strike in Iran.

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“Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said during a press briefing.

On Friday, a jury in New York convicted a Pakistani man who tried to hire hit men on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to carry out political assassinations in the U.S. Some of the prominent figures that the man was said to have been asked to kill include Trump, former President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against an Afghan man who it alleged was approached by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The complaint said the man was instructed to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump.

Trump’s team has been aware of Iran’s longtime threats on his life and made plans to ensure his safety. After the second assassination attempt in Florida in 2024, which was not linked to Iran, Trump's security detail was concerned enough about the Iran threat that it had Trump travel to an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff, according to Axios.

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Trump himself also said last year that he had given his team instructions to “obliterate” Iran if it assassinates him.

“I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left,” Trump said.

Trump signals war with Iran may end soon—even as he vows not to relent