Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani said those responsible for the martyring of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would face retaliation and that US President Donald Trump “will not be safe anywhere in the world.”
In an interview published by the Didban Iran news website and cited by Iran International, Zakani said retaliation against those he described as responsible for Khamenei’s killing “will be carried out.”
“From now on, Trump will not be safe anywhere in the world,” Zakani said.
Earlier, as EurAsian Times reported, Israel had shared intelligence with the Pentagon about a new and “specific” plan by Iran to assassinate Donald Trump.
The reports emerged after Trump’s used an older Air Force One aircraft instead of a new Qatari-gifted jet to leave Ankara after the NATO summit.
Washington has monitored “a steady drumbeat” of intelligence about possible plans to assassinate Trump, “but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot,” a CNN report claimed.
“They want to take out the US leader — me. I’m on whatever list. I saw this morning I’m on every single one of their lists,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew home from a NATO summit.
Trump said on his Truth Social network that he was sending the new jet to Mildenhall Air Base so that service members would have a “chance to tour the Aircraft.”
“Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first. For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One from Turkey,” Trump added.
But the switch to the new jet sparked speculation that it was due to a lack of security features. The swap was reportedly done at the request of the US Secret Service “as a security precaution.”
Trump evaded safety questions but alluded to previous alleged assassination attempts by Iran. “I speak about it a lot because the life of a president is very dangerous,” he said.
Later, aboard the new Air Force One, Trump told a reporter, “you’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags we have to deal with” — an apparent reference to Iran, who he went on to refer to as “sick people.”
Asked if he was aware of a credible threat from Iran, Trump only said, “I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list.”
China, Pakistan Urge Restraint
Meanwhile, China and Pakistan urged the US and Iran to stop fighting and resume talks, according to a statement following a meeting in Shanghai.
A senior Iranian military spokesman called for the US to withdraw from the region, saying “we will never back down over the Strait of Hormuz”, state TV reported.
Attacks on ships in the waterway have continued, with the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency on Friday saying a tanker was struck by a projectile off the coast of Oman overnight.
Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said that in the latest round of fighting, Washington’s “apparent objective is more specific: to weaken and ultimately remove Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz”.
“The United States is therefore pursuing a hybrid approach that combines limited but intensive military action with efforts to generate sustained economic pressure” in hopes of forcing Iran to accept a new deal, he added.
Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned that any deal to end the war “only has meaning when its clauses are valid and being implemented”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Trump would hold Iran “accountable” for going back on its word, but said, “he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time”.
By ET Online Desk
