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A senior Iranian military official warned of severe retaliation against the United States after President Donald Trump called Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a “sick man” and said it was time for new leadership in Tehran, state media reported.
Speaking at a public event, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, the cultural deputy of Iran’s armed forces general staff, dismissed Trump’s remarks.
“We do not take Trump’s noise very seriously,” Shekarchi was quoted as saying.
He added: “Trump knows that if a hand is stretched toward our leader, we will not only cut that hand off – we will set their world on fire. This is not a slogan.”
Shekarchi said Iran would leave “no safe place” for its enemies in the event of any attack.
Trump made his comments on Saturday after Khamenei blamed him for protests in Iran.
“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Politico quoted Trump as saying.
Trump said Iran’s rulers relied on repression and violence to govern.
“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” Trump said. “Leadership is about respect, not fear and death.”
Witnesses in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr have told Iran International that security forces fired at protesters from elevated positions over two nights, leaving more than 20 people with severe eye injuries.
According to the messages received by the outlet, forces fired from locations including rooftops, mosques and some school buildings on the night of Jan. 9 and 8.
Witnesses said medical centers were overwhelmed by the number of wounded, with staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients.
An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader told Iraq’s former prime minister in a phone call that unrest in Iran was part of “a plot against the whole region,”Al-Alam reported on Tuesday.
Al-Alam, a news network affiliated with Iran, said the call was between Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and Nouri al-Maliki.
Velayati was quoted as saying: “Certainly you are aware of the recent events in Iran and the clear positions of the Supreme Leader on this matter. He sees the defeat of the United States at the hands of the Iranian people in this incident as a continuation of its previous defeats, and said the enemy launched this plot for larger goals, but the Iranian people thwarted it.”
Velayati added, according to Al-Alam: “With God’s help, as the Iranian nation broke the backbone of sedition, it must also break the backbone of the traitors. This event was not only against Iran but should be considered a plot against the whole region.”
He also said, as quoted by Al-Alam: “By God’s grace this plot was neutralized, but the fight against the Zionist regime and the United States will continue more seriously.”
Velayati was further reported as saying that Iran, Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestine and Ansarallah in Yemen would stand together against “all oppressors, especially the Zionists.”
The family of a 26-year-old woman killed during protests in the northern Iranian city of Lahijan were forced to make repeated visits to authorities and pay an unspecified amount of money before her body was released, witnesses told Iran International.
The woman, identified as Sanam Pourbabaei, a violin teacher, was shot in the head on Jan. 8, according to the accounts.
Witnesses said she had been on the street with friends on the first night of the Pahlavi protest call when security forces opened fire. They said shots were fired as people tried to flee and that she was hit.
According to the accounts, her body was not initially handed over to her family, who were required to return several times to seek its release.
The family eventually received her body late at night, after what witnesses described as a payment of money, the amount of which was not known, and were required to bury her under heavy security.
Russia sees no reason to halt trade with Iran and will continue to do so whenever it considers it appropriate, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, despite warnings from Washington.
Lavrov was responding to comments by US President Donald Trump, who said on Jan. 12 that any country doing business with Iran would face a 25% tariff on trade with the United States.
Russia and Iran have deepened economic and political ties in recent years, including cooperation on energy and defense.
