US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the US would respond forcefully if Iran kills protesters or acts on assassination threats against him.
In an interview with NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich, Trump was asked about reports that Iranian authorities are still burning thousands of protesters alive and about the assassination threat against him over the weekend.
“Well, they shouldn't be doing it, but I've left notification: Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up," Trump said.
The President continued, “Biden should have said something. When they made a statement, we always said, ‘Why isn't Biden saying anything?’ Because he didn't. But a President has to defend a President…like if I were here and 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. But I have very firm instructions: Anything happens, they're going to wipe them off the face of this earth."
Trump’s comments come amid high tensions between Iran and the US, due to the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters and Trump’s threats to hit Iran hard if protesters are killed.
While at one point on Wednesday, tensions seemed to be at their highest and US action in Iran seemed imminent, matters later calmed as Trump claimed that the killing of protesters had ceased.
Trump earlier on Tuesday commented on the possibility that he would order a strike on Iran over its crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
“So with Iran, they were going to hang 837 people…and we let them know that if that happens that it will be a very bad day for them, and they decided not to do it," Trump told reporters at the White House.
“I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future but supposedly they’ve taken that off the table," he added. “Is the military option off the table? No."