{"id":26197,"date":"2026-01-21T08:31:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.iq\/?p=26197"},"modified":"2026-01-22T01:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:23:34","slug":"us-and-iran-exchange-direct-threats-of-war-over-assassination-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/us-and-iran-exchange-direct-threats-of-war-over-assassination-warnings\/","title":{"rendered":"US and Iran Exchange Direct Threats of War Over Assassination Warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington and Tehran have issued direct threats of large-scale military conflict in response to warnings of potential assassinations targeting their respective leaders. The exchange marks a significant escalation in rhetoric between the two countries.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with News Nation aired on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump stated that Iran would be wiped &#8220;off the face of this earth&#8221; if it were to assassinate him. &#8220;I have very firm instructions. Anything happens, they&#8217;re going to wipe them off the face of this earth,&#8221; Trump said, addressing threats against his life.<\/p>\n<p>This follows a similar warning Trump made a year ago, where he stated that if Iran were to act, &#8220;they get obliterated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In response, Iranian General Abolfazl Shekarchi, speaking to Iranian state media on Tuesday, declared that Tehran would retaliate severely if any harm came to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. &#8220;Trump knows that if a hand of aggression is extended toward our leader, we will not only sever that hand, and this is not a mere slogan,&#8221; Shekarchi stated. &#8220;But we will set their world on fire and leave them no safe haven in the region.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These threats come as Iran faces significant internal unrest. The country has been experiencing major anti-government protests, reportedly some of the largest since 1979, which began in December due to severe economic conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights organizations are documenting the casualties from the government&#8217;s crackdown on these demonstrations. The Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported over 4,000 confirmed deaths. Separately, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO noted that the total number of protesters killed could potentially exceed media estimates of 20,000, though verification is difficult due to communication restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Amidst the turmoil, some figures in the Iranian diaspora, including Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, have advocated for targeted US intervention against Iran&#8217;s leadership and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington and Tehran have issued direct threats of large-scale military conflict in response to warnings of potential assassinations targeting their respective leaders. The exchange marks a significant escalation in rhetoric between the two countries. In an interview with News Nation aired on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump stated that Iran would be wiped &#8220;off the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"7","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[1811,101,94,144],"class_list":["post-26197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional","tag-assassination","tag-diplomacy","tag-iran","tag-us-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26200,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26197\/revisions\/26200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}