Iran issued a chilling threat to US President Donald Trump live on state TV.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared over the Islamic Republic’s bloody crackdown on nationwide anti-regime demonstrations.
The Iranian leadership is also desperate to deter Trump from following through on his repeated threats to back the protesters with further military action.
After Trump urged activists to ‘keep protesting’ with the pledge that ‘help is on its way’, Iranian state TV aired footage of the failed assassination attempt against him in 2024 with the caption: ‘This time, the bullet won’t miss.’
Trump has openly threatened to intervene in Iran for days, without giving specifics.
In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, he vowed ‘very strong action’ if Iran executes protesters.
Shopkeeper Erfan Soltani, 26, was believed to be the first Iranian protester sentenced to death since the unrest started last month.
He was widely expected to be hanged yesterday, but Iran’s judiciary is now being quoted as confirming he has not been sentenced to death.
The judiciary said Soltani, currently held in the central penitentiary of Karaj, is being charged with ‘colluding against the country’s internal security and propaganda activities against the regime’.
But it adds the death penalty does not apply to such charges if they are confirmed by a court.
Yesterday, The US began pulling military personnel from key bases in the region as the political situation deteriorated.
‘All the signals are that a US attack is imminent, but that is also how this administration behaves to keep everyone on their toes. Unpredictability is part of the strategy,’ one Western military official told Reuters.
At the White House, however, Trump suggested he was adopting a wait-and-see posture toward the crisis.
Trump told reporters that he has been told that the killings of protesters was subsiding and that he believes there is currently no plan for large-scale executions, citing ‘very important sources on the other side’.
However, the president did not rule out potential US military action, saying ‘we are going to watch what the process is’ before noting that his administration had received a ‘very good statement’ from Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday ‘there is no plan’ to hang people, when asked about the anti-government protests.
‘There is no plan for hanging at all,’ the foreign minister told Fox News in an interview on the ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’ show.
‘Hanging is out of the question.’
Iran and its Western foes have both described the unrest as the most violent since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that installed Iran’s system of Shi’ite clerical rule.
Iranian authorities said the demonstrations turned from legitimate protest at economic grievances into unrest fomented by its foreign enemies, accusing people it described as terrorists of attacking the security forces and public property.
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