A high-ranking Iranian security official issued a stark warning to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, advising the U.S. leader to “be careful not to get eliminated yourself” as disputes intensify over control of a crucial oil transit route.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and acting leader of Iran after Khamenei’s death, posted the veiled assassination threat on X after Trump said he would strike Iran “twenty times harder” if Tehran disrupted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Larijani’s message came two days after Trump’s forceful post on Truth Social promising “Death, Fire, and Fury” should Iran interfere with the waterway that carries roughly 20% of global oil exports.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself,” Larijani wrote on Tuesday, March 10.
The comment marked a sharp intensification in the rhetorical clash between Washington and Tehran, arriving nearly two weeks after Israel killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 at the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli operation. Larijani, who played a central role in planning Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab countries, had earlier vowed on state television to hold Trump personally responsible for Khamenei’s death.
Yet, only seven days after issuing the warning, Larijani was killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 17.
The U.S. has accused Iran of orchestrating several plots to assassinate Trump in recent years, allegations Tehran denies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that U.S. forces eliminated the leader of a covert Iranian unit that had been planning to assassinate the president during recent strikes inside Iran. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth said at a briefing.
The assassination schemes have had real consequences. On March 6, a New York jury found a Pakistani national guilty of attempting to hire hit men on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to carry out political murders in the United States. Prosecutors said the intended targets included Trump, former President Joe Biden, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
In 2024, the Justice Department unsealed a criminal complaint against an Afghan man who allegedly was contacted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to craft a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump. The threats intensified to the point that after a second assassination attempt in Florida that year—which was not connected to Iran—Trump’s security detail had him attend an event on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff.
Trump has said he left instructions with his team regarding possible Iranian assassination attempts. Last year, he told reporters that if Iran managed to kill him, “they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
The increased threats coincided with Iran launching fresh strikes Tuesday against Israel and Gulf Arab states, using missiles and drones against Israeli targets and U.S. bases in the region. The Islamic Republic has also targeted energy infrastructure and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, contributing to a sharp rise in oil prices since the conflict began.
Brent crude has been volatile recently, surging past $100 per barrel before pulling back—still far above levels at the war’s start on February 28. The attacks appear designed to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the U.S. and Israel to stop their military campaign.
At a Tuesday press briefing, Defense Secretary Hegseth reiterated Trump’s warning about the Strait of Hormuz, while Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to rule out U.S. naval escorts for ships transiting the strategic channel.
Observers in Tehran reported hearing multiple explosions Tuesday afternoon as Israel carried out another round of airstrikes on Iranian targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the strikes would continue, saying the goal is to help Iranians “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”
Despite escalating tensions and economic fallout, Trump sought to downplay concerns of a prolonged conflict, calling the operation “going to be a short-term excursion.” Oil prices fell sharply early Tuesday after the president said the fighting would end “very soon.”
The direct warning to Trump from a senior Iranian official was an unprecedented moment in U.S.-Iran relations, with TIME calling Larijani’s post the clearest threat yet from Tehran’s leadership toward the American president.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed that Ali Larijani was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the night of March 16–17. His son, Morteza Larijani, and his chief of staff, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in the strike. Considered Iran’s de facto leader after the assassination of Supreme Leader Khamenei on February 28, Larijani was the most senior Iranian official killed since the war began. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz credited air force personnel and “our American partners” for the operation. The IDF also killed Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Basij militia, and his deputy in a separate overnight strike.