Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander issued a warning to Washington on Thursday, declaring his forces have their “finger on the trigger,” even as US President Donald Trump claimed the Islamic Republic wants to negotiate.
General Mohammad Pakpour urged Israel and the United States to avoid any miscalculations by learning from historical experiences and what they learned in the “12-day imposed war.”
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran have their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief [Khamenei], a leader dearer than their own lives,” Pakpour said in a statement that Iranian television quoted.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Trump said the US struck Iranian uranium enrichment sites last year to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Can’t let that happen,” Trump said. “And Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”
Though the likelihood of immediate American military action against Tehran appeared to diminish this week, tensions continue to escalate.
General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who leads the Iranian joint command headquarters, warned that if the US launches attacks, all US interests, bases and centers of influence would become “legitimate targets.”
Trump had warned Iran’s leaders on Tuesday that the US would “wipe them off the face of this earth” if anyone attacked him in response to a strike targeting Khamenei.
The warnings follow widespread protests that began in late December across Iran. Authorities violently suppressed the movement and imposed what the monitoring organisation NetBlocks called a “national kill-switch” internet blackout now entering its second week.
Iranian officials on Wednesday released their first official death toll from the recent protests, stating that 3,117 people lost their lives.