Iranian military leader threatens preemptive attack after Trump comments

The caput of Iran's subject threatened preemptive enactment implicit "rhetoric" targeting the state arsenic the authorities faces monolithic protests. Iran's Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami was apt responding to President Donald Trump's informing that America would enactment if unit was utilized against protesters.

Trump precocious made it wide that the U.S. would measurement successful if it saw that Iran was mistreating oregon sidesplitting protesters.

The president wrote connected Truth Social, "If Iran shoots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America volition travel to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and acceptable to go."

Trump's informing took connected a caller meaning for Iran pursuing the historical U.S. ngo successful Venezuela that led to the seizure and extradition of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

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Iranian subject main Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami seemed to respond to President Donald Trump's remarks successful his latest connection connected the ongoing protests. (Masoud Nazari Mehrabi/Iranian Army via AP; Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Hatami, who was speaking to subject academy students, said, "The Islamic Republic considers the intensification of specified rhetoric against the Iranian federation arsenic a menace and volition not permission its continuation without a response," according to The Associated Press, which cited the state-run IRNA quality agency.

He added, "I tin accidental with assurance that contiguous the readiness of Iran’s equipped forces is acold greater than earlier the war. If the force commits an error, it volition look a much decisive response, and we volition chopped disconnected the manus of immoderate aggressor."

Economic woes person led to an uprising among the Iranian people, and planetary backlash implicit the attraction of demonstrators has near authorities officials feeling threatened, peculiarly by the U.S. and Israel.

Protesters clasp signs during a objection successful Iran amid ongoing unrest, according to images released by the Iranian absorption radical National Council of Resistance of Iran. (NCRI )

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In an effort to quell the unrest, Iran's authorities began paying the equivalent of $7 a period to subsidize rising nutrient costs for dinner-table staples, specified arsenic rice, nutrient and pasta. Iranian authorities TV reported that the subsidy volition spell to much than 71 cardinal radical crossed the country, according to the AP. The outlet noted that the caller subsidy is much than treble the 4.5 cardinal rial the radical had antecedently received.

Iranian shopkeepers person warned that prices for items similar basal cooking lipid could triple nether unit from the illness of the country's currency, the AP reported. Iranian media has besides reportedly covered the emergence successful prices of basal goods, including cooking oil, poultry and cheese.

Protesters march successful downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.  (Fars News Agency via AP)

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Iran’s vice president successful complaint of enforcement affairs, Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah, told reporters that the state was successful a "full-fledged economical war," the AP reported. He called for "economic surgery" to get escaped of rentier policies and corruption wrong Iran, the AP added.

Protests began precocious past period and person showed nary signs of stopping. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed the cities of Abdanan (Ilam province) and Malekshahi were efficaciously "taken over" by protesters.

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital's Emma Bussey contributed to this report.