WASHINGTON — Tensions between Washington and Tehran escalated sharply Saturday as President Trump threatened to rain thousands of missiles on Iran, a warning triggered by the new Iranian supreme leader’s public vow to avenge his father’s death during a U.S. airstrike earlier this year.
Missiles 'Locked and Loaded'
In a statement on his Truth Social platform, Trump declared that a thousand missiles are “Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow.” The president said he was responding to explicit threats “to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate” him, which surfaced during the recent funeral proceedings for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86. The late Khamenei was killed in a U.S. airstrike on February 28 that initiated the latest round of hostilities.
“Such revenge is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” newly elevated Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in remarks carried by Iranian state television, referring directly to the United States.
Trump's statement included the phrase “PRAISE BE TO ALLAH,” a repetition of a rhetorical flourish criticized by domestic advocacy groups as a mocking appropriation of Islamic terminology, but which the administration frames as a psychological operation against the Tehran regime.
Strait of Hormuz at Center of Dispute
The immediate flashpoint for renewed American strikes this week is the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint handling roughly one-fifth of global oil transit. Iran attacked three vessels in the strait earlier this week, prompting a U.S. military response that shattered an already fragile ceasefire. American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, attributed the attacks to a “rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners” attempting to sabotage ongoing negotiations. Tehran insists its theocracy is unified under its new leadership.
The core economic threat to American workers is direct. Any sustained disruption or new transit fees imposed solely by Tehran on commercial shipping would immediately spike global energy prices, raising gasoline and heating costs for domestic households and hammering energy-intensive American industries. The administration has demanded Iran publicly declare the strait open for unimpeded passage; Tehran’s United Nations diplomat countered that all activity there, including demining operations, “rests exclusively with Iran.”
While Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Oman for further discussions facilitated by Qatari mediators, Trump has given negotiators a limited window to secure compliance. The enduring reality is that another prolonged military entanglement in the Middle East serves neither American primacy nor domestic economic interests, even as the administration insists all options remain on the table to keep energy supply lines open.