Featured Image Credit: Reza B / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: News, US News, World News, Iran, Money
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, US News, World News, Iran, Money
Iran has issued an assassination threat against Donald Trump as US bombing of the country continues.
It comes after Iran's previous supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during US and Israeli airstrikes.
Khamenei was only the second person to have held the position, taking over after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei has been chosen as the successor to the position, and is the first supreme leader to not have been directly involved in the 1979 revolution which saw the Shia Islamist regime seize power.
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Following the death of their leader, Iran has now issued a threat against Donald Trump, and reminded the US president of the many times that invaders have attempted to conquer Iran throughout its long history.
Iran's threat came from Ali Ardashir Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who shared the message after Trump posted on his platform Truth Social.
Larijani said: “The Ashura nation of Iran is not afraid of your empty threats. Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Be careful not to be eliminated!”
He signed the message: “Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Tehran, March 19, 1404 - 10 days after the martyrdom of His Holiness Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.”
Speaking from the Oval Office in February 2025, Trump said that if Iran or their proxies assassinated him, 'they would be obliterated'.
He continued: "That would be the end. I've left instructions. If they do it, they would be obliterated. There wouldn't be anything left."
Trump has previously threatened to hit Iran 'twenty times harder' if the country attempts to disrupt oil supplies in the Strait of Hormuz.
This is a narrow stretch of water between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, with the peninsula that makes up the United Arab Emirates on its south, and Iran to the north.
It provides an important trade route for countries including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, allowing ships to either circle west around the Arabian Peninsula to the Suez Canal, or sail east to Pakistan and India.
Approximately 20 percent of the world's oil production is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, and disruption from the war has already led to a surge in oil prices, with prices rising to $119 a barrel.
Normally around 100 vessels traverse the strait every day, but the war has seen that traffic plummet.
The Guardian has reported that only a handful of vessels not linked to Iran or Russia have attempted the run, with one switching off its transponder until it was well on the way to Mumbai, while another signalled that it was Chinese owned and crewed.
This drop in traffic has come despite attempts at reassurance from Trump, who has announced a $20 billion reinsurance scheme, as well as urging oil tanker crews to 'show some guts'.
The Strait of Hormuz, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, is one of the world's most important oil shipping routes and sees around 3,000 ships sail through it per month.
It carries around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade and significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers, according to the UN Trade & Development, meaning any form of disruption can be catastrophic for the global energy system.
And this is exactly what we are seeing. Since the joint attack on Iran by the US and Israel at the end of February, traffic through the Strait has fallen drastically, resulting in a global rise in prices of goods such as oil, energy, and food.
But this isn't the only major conflict the Strait of Hormuz is enduring.
On March 11, maritime authorities confirmed that three cargo vessels in the strait were hit by 'unknown projectiles', while the US military said on the same day that it attacked and destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait amid reports that Iran began laying explosive devices in the waterway.
CNN previously reported that the Middle Eastern country had laid a few dozen mines in the Strait in the past week, and has the capability to sow hundreds more.
President Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday (March 10) that 'if Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!'
He added: "If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before."
It is believed Iran has attacked 13 vessels operating around the Gulf since the war began, with countries such as Thailand and Japan reporting damage to ships.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier this week it will not allow even 'one litre of oil' to leave the region if US-Israeli attacks continue, meaning disruptions and price rises across the globe are unfortunately to be expected if the war carries on.