Iran warns Trump against taking any action against Supreme Leader Khamenei

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Tuesday warned Donald Trump against taking any action against the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, days after the US president called for an end to Khamenei’s nearly 40-year rule.

“Trump knows that if any aggressive hand extends toward our leader, we will not only cut off that hand, but we will set their world on fire as well,” said General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces.

These statements came after Trump described Khamenei in an interview with Politico newspaper on Saturday as “a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” adding that “it is time to look for new leadership in Iran.”

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Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated since the authorities’ violent crackdown on protests sparked by Iran’s faltering economy on December 28. Trump has drawn two red lines for the Islamic Republic – the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran carrying out mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Malacca Strait, a key waterway linking the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship tracking data showed.

A US Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.

While Navy and other defense officials stopped short of saying that the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current orientation and location in the Indian Ocean meant it had only a few days left to move into the region.

This would not be the first time in recent years that an aircraft carrier group deployed in the Pacific has been transferred to the Middle East to address instability in the region. The “Abraham Lincoln” was redirected to the Middle East in 2024. Last June, the USS Nimitz strike group was ordered to go to the region.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said on Tuesday that the death toll in the protests had reached at least 4,484 people. The agency was meticulous throughout the years of demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country to confirm all reported deaths. The Associated Press was unable to independently confirm this number.

The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protests or unrest in Iran in decades, and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic into existence. Although there have been no protests for days, there are fears that the number could rise significantly as information gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed internet shutdown since January 8.

Khamenei said on Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” dead and blamed the United States. This was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of human losses.

Another 26,127 people were arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. The officials’ comments raised fears that some detainees would be executed in Iran, one of the largest countries that carry out death sentences in the world.

National Police Chief General Ahmed Reda Radan said that those who surrender will receive more lenient treatment than those who do not surrender.

“Those who were deceived by foreign intelligence services and practically became their soldiers have a chance to turn themselves in,” Radan said in an interview broadcast on Iranian state television on Monday. He added, “In the event of surrender, there will certainly be a reduction in the sentence. They have three days to surrender.”

He did not explain what would happen after the three days.

Konstantin Torobin in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.