U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday issued a fresh warning to Iran after chants calling for his assassination were heard during the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, highlighting escalating tensions in the Middle East as an interim cease-fire continues to fray amid repeated exchanges of fire.
Trump's remarks on Truth Social came after senior U.S. officials demanded that Tehran publicly guarantee the Strait of Hormuz would remain open and that commercial vessels transiting the strategic waterway would no longer face attacks.
Iran has so far refused, maintaining that it should retain control over the strait and be permitted to levy fees on ships passing through it, a position that challenges decades of international practice treating the Strait of Hormuz as an international waterway.
There had been multiple days of U.S. airstrikes targeting Iran, as well as Iranian retaliatory fire targeting nations across the Middle East. Those strikes had been sparked by Iran attacking three ships in the strait earlier this week.
"A thousand missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian government act on its threat," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
