Iran's new supreme leader vows revenge, Trump says 1,000 missiles aimed at Iran and threatens 'decimate' if his life is targeted

US and Iranian leaders traded threats on Saturday after a week of airstrikes shattered an interim ceasefire, with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei pledging revenge for the killing of his father and Donald Trump warning that any assassination attempt would be met with overwhelming force.

A cycle of strikes and accusations

The exchanges followed two consecutive nights of US airstrikes starting Tuesday, which Washington says were aimed at military targets after it blamed Tehran for attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s health ministry reported that 17 people were killed and 115 wounded, and accused the US of also hitting civilian infrastructure to keep Iranians from attending the funeral of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who died in February. Iran retaliated by striking Gulf neighbours, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s first public message

In a written statement dated Friday but broadcast on state television Saturday, the new supreme leader spoke for the first time since the national funeral for his father on Thursday.

I say to our martyr leader that we swear to avenge his pure blood and that of all the martyrs of these two wars. This vengeance is the will of our nation and it must be carried out, inevitably.

He added that a list of targeted individuals had been compiled and that the revenge did not depend on any single official’s survival. Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since the war began.

Trump’s response and heightened security

Hours before the supreme leader’s message, Trump posted on Truth Social that 1,000 missiles were “Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat … to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!” He added that the US military was ready for a year-long period, which could be extended, to “decimate and destroy all areas” of Iran.

During the NATO summit in Ankara, Iranian parliamentarians had called for an immediate attack while Trump’s hotel location was shared on Telegram, and crowds at Khamenei’s funeral chanted death threats and burned a Trump effigy. Israeli intelligence reportedly warned Trump’s team of a new assassination plot, prompting the US president to return from Turkey on an older aircraft equipped with missile defences instead of the new Air Force One.

I’m on every one of their death lists.

Ceasefire on the brink

The rhetoric puts the interim agreement that paused the war in June under severe strain. Iran’s UN representative, Amir Saeid Iravani, warned that if the US “continues to fail its obligations under the protocol of the agreement, Iran will not feel it must respect its own obligations.” Trump has said the ceasefire is over but kept the door open for talks, describing them also as “a waste of time.”

Mediation pushed forward

Despite the threats, diplomatic channels remained active. A Qatari delegation travelled to Tehran on Friday, and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi headed to Oman on Saturday for further negotiations. The Qataris were seeking to reinforce their role as mediators, Iranian news agency Tasnim reported.