Video from Tehran on Wednesday evening shows people chanting “Death to Khamenei” in a neighborhood.
Some Tehran commentators say any US attempt to seize Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf could play directly into the IRGC’s long-standing strategy of capturing American troops for leverage.
Much of the commentary in Iranian media and political circles frames such a scenario as an opportunity rather than a risk for Tehran, arguing that deploying US forces on Iranian territory would expose them to capture by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and potentially inflict a political humiliation on Washington.
The idea has deep roots in Iran’s political rhetoric. Mohsen Rezai, the former IRGC commander who once floated the proposal of capturing US troops and demanding large sums for their release, now serves as a senior military adviser to Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
Former IRGC commander Hossein Kanani Moghaddam said last week that one scenario allegedly considered by the United States involved focusing on Iran’s southern islands and attempting to seize them to gain control over Persian Gulf oil routes.
“If Trump were to deploy air and naval forces along with Delta Force commandos in a ground operation, the battlefield would shift entirely in our favor,” Kanani Moghaddam said. “By killing or capturing American soldiers, we could raise the level of US losses to a point where they would quickly regret their actions.”
He added that such losses could trigger a political backlash in Washington and even lead to impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
The prospect of an occupation of an Iranian island has also been linked in Iranian commentary to the broader diplomatic standoff between Tehran and Washington.
Despite Trump’s references to “constructive negotiations,” Iranian officials argue that US military threats undermine any possibility of diplomacy.
On March 25, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran had already experienced “two catastrophic examples” of trusting US diplomacy. “Over the past nine months, the United States has attacked Iran twice in the middle of negotiations,” he said. “This was a betrayal of diplomacy.”
In a March 23 interview with the Iranian outlet Fararu, Jalal Sadatian, Iran’s former chief diplomat in London, said Trump could not simultaneously threaten military action against Iranian territory while expecting Tehran to accept ceasefire proposals.
Sadatian also warned that Iranian retaliation could expand beyond direct confrontation with US forces. He pointed to the IRGC’s earlier warnings that electricity-generation facilities and desalination plants in regional countries could be targeted if Iran’s own critical infrastructure were attacked.
According to Sadatian, Tehran had long warned that any attack on Iran would trigger a broader regional war. He argued that Washington underestimated Iran’s willingness and ability to strike US bases across the region.
A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed prospects for US-Iran diplomacy, telling CNN that Tehran “always lies” and arguing that Israel’s objective is to eliminate the threat posed by the Islamic Republic.
“Well, Iran always lies. We've we've learned that they always lie. But more importantly, our objective is to remove the existential threat posed by this ayatollah regime," Ophir Falk said.
"The best way of doing that is to remove the regime. Another way of doing that is to decimate their capabilities, decimate their military capabilities until they get to the stone age," he added.
Uganda Chief of Defense Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba posted on X on Wednesday that the world wants the Middle East war to end now, but any talk of destroying or defeating Israel will bring Uganda into the war on Israel's side.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that American forces successfully intercepted 100 Iranian missiles aimed at a key target, adding no missile reached its objective and praising the strength of US military capabilities.
Speaking at a fundraising event for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump said: “We knocked out their navy. We knocked out everything. It’s amazing. We have the greatest military. We make the greatest military equipment.”
Describing the Iranian strike, he said: “100 missiles going 2,000 miles an hour were coming at this element of importance, tremendous power and importance. And of the 100 missiles coming at us, 100 missiles were immediately shot down, shot out of the air, fall into the sea. Not one missile got through.”
Trump added that US military production must accelerate, emphasizing that all equipment should be “made in America” to maintain the country’s defensive edge.
US President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon and called for decisive action to stop the country, adding past US operations had delayed Tehran’s nuclear program.
Speaking at a fundraising event for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump said: “We’re going to have to do something about Iran, because they’re going to have a nuclear weapon very soon. And they’re crazy. They’re out of their minds, and we have to stop them.”
Trump also highlighted past strikes, saying B-2 bombers had “obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites, preventing the regime from acquiring a weapon years ago. He criticized former presidents, including Barack Obama, for enabling Iran’s nuclear ambitions and said his own administration terminated agreements that would have allowed Tehran to gain nuclear capabilities quickly.
He additionally recalled the killing of an Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani, describing him as “evil” but a formidable leader whose removal disrupted Iran’s military leadership.