Trump’s 11-word Iran armada warning sparks WW3 fears | US | News
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that US military ships and planes were heading towards Iran.
Trump confirmed to reporters aboard Air Force One that an “armada” of ships and fleets was heading toward Iran. An audio recording of the informal press briefing on the ship was released to X by Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based bipartisan, non-profit policy organization.
“We have a lot of ships heading to Iran,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday. “We’ll see what happens. There’s a large force heading there. I don’t want anything to happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”
The announcement follows Trump’s support for anti-government demonstrators that erupted in Iran last month and the powerful American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln sailing non-stop from the Asia-Pacific to the Middle East.
Iranian state media claim that more than 3,000 people died during the government’s suppression of dissent, but there is significant variation in the death toll from different organisations.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency recently calculated that 4,519 people were killed during the wave of protests, including 4,251 demonstrators, 197 security forces, 35 people under the age of 18 and 38 bystanders, while noting that approximately 9,049 more deaths were under investigation. Additionally, thousands more people were detained.
At the press conference, Trump announced that he had prevented hundreds of executions, which he condemned as a barbaric practice. He claims to have warned the Iranian leadership of reprisals if they proceeded with the executions.
Trump said Iran will “make what we did to your nuclear sites look like peanuts.” “They canceled [the executions]. “They didn’t postpone it, that’s a good sign.”
He later refused to comment on whether he had asked for the resignation of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“They know what we want. There’s too much murder going on,” Trump said. “We talk to them a lot. When we nuked them, they should have made a deal because it was a devastating blow.”
A few days ago, Trump stated that he wanted regime change in Iran and blamed the country’s leader for the internal turmoil.
“It is time to seek new leadership in Iran,” Trump told Politico. “[Khamenei] a sick man who needs to run his country properly and stop killing people. Leadership is about respect, not fear and death.”
Following Trump’s comments, a senior Iranian military official threatened retaliation against the United States, according to Iranian state media, Iran International reported.
A senior Iranian military official warned of severe retaliation against the US after the President Donald Trump He called Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei a “sick man” and said it was time for new leadership in Tehran, state media reported. “We don’t take Trump’s voice very seriously,” Iranian Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said at a public event.
“Trump knows that if a hand is laid out against our leader, we will not only cut off that hand, but set their world on fire. This is not a slogan.”
These words came after Trump’s statement that it would be “deleted”. [Iran] Stay off the face of this Earth” in response to allegations of threats to his life.
“If anything happens, the whole country will blow up, I left a notice,” Trump said. “I will definitely hit them very hard. I have very strict instructions, if anything happens they will wipe them off this Earth.”
Demonstrations broke out in late December as traders began protesting falling currency values and rising living costs, which later escalated into broader anti-government unrest.
