Iran warns Trump not to take action against Khamenei : NPR
In this photo posted by an official website of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s Office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026.
AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader
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AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Tuesday warned Donald Trump not to take any action against the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, days after the U.S. president called for an end to Khamenei’s nearly 40-year rule.
“Trump knows that if an aggressive hand is extended against our leader, we will not only cut off his hand, but we will also set their world on fire,” said General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesman for the Iranian armed forces.
The comments come after Trump described Khamenei in an interview with Politico on Saturday as “a sick man who should lead his country properly and stop killing people,” adding that “it is time to look for new leadership in Iran.”
Tensions between the United States and Iran have been high since authorities violently suppressed protests that began Dec. 28 over Iran’s struggling economy. Trump drew two red lines for the Islamic Republic: the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran carrying out mass executions following the protests.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had crossed the Malacca Strait, a key waterway connecting the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, on Tuesday, according to ship tracking data.
A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.
Although Navy and other defense officials have not said the carrier strike group is headed to the Middle East, its current direction and location in the Indian Ocean means it has only days left before entering the region.
It would not be the first time in recent years that a carrier strike group deployed in the Pacific was transferred to the Middle East to deal with instability in the region. The Abraham Lincoln was diverted to the Middle East in 2024. Last June, the USS Nimitz Strike Group was ordered to the region.
The death toll from the protests reached at least 4,519 people, the American news agency Human Rights Activists News said on Tuesday. The agency has been accurate throughout years of protests and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country who confirm all reported deaths. The Associated Press was unable to independently confirm this figure.
The death toll exceeds that of any other wave of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos that surrounded the 1979 revolution that gave birth to the Islamic Republic. Although there have been no protests for days, there are fears that their numbers will increase significantly as information gradually emerges from a country still subject to the government-imposed internet shutdown since January 8.
Khamenei said Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” dead and blamed the United States. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the scale of the losses.
More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists news agency. The officials’ comments raised fears that some of those detained could be put to death in Iran, one of the world’s leading executioners.
National Police Chief Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan said those who surrendered would receive more lenient treatment than those who did not.
“Those who were deceived by foreign intelligence services and became their soldiers in practice have a chance to surrender,” Radan said in an interview broadcast Monday by Iranian state television. “If they surrender, there will definitely be a reduction in the sentence. They have three days to surrender.”
He did not specify what would happen after these three days.
