US President Donald Trump has said the United States would “wipe Iran off the face of the earth” if his life were threatened, using his strongest language yet towards Tehran.
Trump made the remarks in response to a question from the US television channel NewsNation about possible Iranian threats against him. He said: “They shouldn’t be doing it, but I’ve left notification. Anything ever happens, we’re going to blow the whole — the whole country is going to get blown up,”
In the same interview, Trump criticised his predecessor Joe Biden, accusing his administration of being weak and too lenient towards Iran. He said “we always wondered why Biden never said anything.”
“If they were making that threat to somebody even, not even a president, but somebody like they did with me, I would absolutely hit them so hard,” Trump added.
Trump’s comments come days after Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned that Iran was ready to teach Trump “an unforgettable lesson” if he decided to attack the Islamic Republic.
The warning was echoed by Iran’s parliamentary national security and foreign policy committee, amid an unprecedented rise in tensions between Iran and the United States following direct exchanges of threats. Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, have said that any attack on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be considered a declaration of full-scale war and would trigger a wide response.
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