Trump Threatens Iran After Assassination Plot Reports
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- Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday saying "1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded" at Iran and that the US military is ready to "completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran" for a one-year period, subject to extension, in response to alleged assassination threats.
- The threats followed the funeral of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where open calls for Trump's killing were made, and after Israel warned the US of a "highly specific, active" Iranian assassination plot confirmed by CNN and the Wall Street Journal.
- The reported plot prompted the US Secret Service to request that Trump switch planes when leaving the NATO summit in Turkiye earlier in the week.
- Trump also declared the provisional ceasefire with Iran "OVER" following Iranian attacks on Qatari and Saudi tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, which triggered US air strikes on Iran for two nights and retaliatory Iranian missile and drone attacks on US-linked military facilities.
- Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's lead negotiator and parliament speaker, said Tehran would never surrender to the US and remains ready for "full-scale defence" if Washington abandons the Pakistani-brokered memorandum of understanding.
- Despite the escalation, diplomatic activity continued: Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went to Muscat for Strait of Hormuz security talks, and Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif urged restraint in a call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
- Senior US officials said a deal requires Iran to agree to nuclear limits and deliver its nuclear material, and issued an ultimatum following recent Iranian targeting of commercial vessels.
Why it matters: For Tehran, Trump's demand to surrender nuclear material under threat of full-scale strikes — paired with his claim in the same post that talks continue — forces a choice between capitulation and a fight Ghalibaf says Iran is fully prepared for. Mediators in Doha, Muscat, and Islamabad are now racing to bridge a gap whose assassination-plot framing makes political compromise on either side explosive.
