Be careful with your words, Trump warns Khamenei

Washington, January 18

President Donald Trump on Friday warned Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be “very careful with his words”. “The so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ of Iran, who has not been so Supreme lately, had some nasty things to say about the United States and Europe,” Trump tweeted of Khamenei’s comments earlier Friday in Tehran.

According to Trump, Khamenei’s blistering speech, in which he attacked the “vicious” United States and described Britain, France and Germany as “America’s lackey’s,” was a mistake.

“Their economy is crashing, and their people are suffering. He should be very careful with his words!” Trump tweeted. On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader threw his support behind the elite Revolutionary Guards in a rare sermon after their belated admission that they had accidentally downed an airliner triggered days of street protests. Khamenei also told worshippers chanting “Death to America” that the elite Guards could take their fight beyond Iran’s borders after the U.S. killing of a top Iranian commander.

Khamenei’s address came amid a deepening crisis for Iran as it grapples with unrest at home and rising pressure from abroad. Tension has steadily ratcheted higher since 2018, when the United States withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have hammered the economy. The standoff erupted into tit-for-tat military strikes this month, when Washington killed top commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike on Jan. 3 and Iran launched missile strikes at U.S. targets in Iraq on Jan. 8. In the tense aftermath, a Ukrainian airliner was shot down by mistake. But it took days for the Guards to admit this and protesters directed their rage at the elite force and the clerical system it was set up to defend. — Agencies