Both sides dialled up the rhetoric after exchanges of fire this week rocked an interim agreement aimed at ending their war, which broke out in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes.
Trump has declared their ceasefire over, while mediators have been trying to salvage diplomacy, with Iranian media reporting that a delegation from Qatar travelled to Iran on Friday.
“Vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out,” Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written message.
He became Iran’s supreme leader after his father Ali Khamenei’s killing in late February by US-Israeli strikes which started the fighting, but has not been in public since before the war.
“This matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass,” he wrote in his first message since his father’s funeral this week.
Hours earlier Trump had posted on his Truth Social platform that any attempt to assassinate him would lead the United States to “completely decimate” Iran.
Israel gave Washington intelligence claiming an Iranian plot to assassinate the US leader.
“1000 Missiles are 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, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!,” Trump wrote.
“Orders have already been given, and the US Military is ready, willing, and able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, to completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran.”
With both nations stepping up their threats, mediators have been working to bring diplomacy back on track. Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Friday that a Qatari delegation was visiting Iran to “try to reinforce Qatar’s role as a mediator”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Oman on Saturday to discuss arrangements for the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Araghchi meanwhile said Tehran had stuck to its end of the bargain after the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding last month.
Tehran “has so far kept its word”, he said. “Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance.” (Agencies)
