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U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran that he has issued "very firm instructions" for the country to be "wiped off the face of this earth" if Tehran acts on alleged assassination threats against him.
"They shouldn't be doing it, but I've left a notification. If anything ever happens, we're going to blow the whole—the whole country is going to get blown up," Trump said in an interview with NewsNation marking the first anniversary of his second term.
"I have very firm instructions—if anything happens, they're going to wipe them off the face of this earth," Trump noted.
Trump also criticized former President Joe Biden for not responding forcefully to Iranian threats during the previous administration.
"If they were making that threat to somebody, even, not even a president, but somebody as they did with me, I would absolutely hit them so hard," Trump said, arguing that past leaders failed to respond adequately.
"Biden should have said something" when similar statements were first made, Trump added.
Trump is pressing aides for "decisive" military options against Iran after stepping back from potential strikes last week, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Trump has repeatedly used the term "decisive" in internal discussions about what he would want any potential US action against Iran to achieve, the report said, citing anonymous U.S. officials.
"That language has prompted officials at the White House and Pentagon to prepare a range of military scenarios for the president, including options that could seek to remove Iran's leadership," the report stated.
The officials said Trump has not authorized strikes, and his final decision remains uncertain, "but ongoing discussions indicate he has not ruled out taking action against Tehran over the killing of protesters," the report said.
The discussions come as the U.S. deploys additional forces to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier spotted by maritime-traffic trackers sailing west from the South China Sea toward the Persian Gulf and F-15E fighter jets that landed Sunday in Jordan, WSJ reported.
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