'Your Country Gets Blown to Smithereens': Trump Warns Iran If it Attacks US Leaders

Washington: Donald Trump on Wednesday, September 25, said that if Iran is involved in attacking a US White House candidate or ex-president, then it should be blown "to smithereens."

These provocative remarks come as the Republican presidential candidate was speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina. The US intelligence had earlier warned of threats from Tehran against the 78-year-old's life after the recent two apparent assassination bids.

"As you know, there have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve -- but possibly do -- Iran."

"If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens," Trump added.

The 78-year-old former US President went on to say that the US has been "very directly threatened by Iran" and emphasised that a firm message needs to reach Tehran that the most severe consequences should be involved if it plots to kill or hurt the US President or presidential candidate.

The best way to do it is through the office of the president, that (if) you do any attacks on former presidents or candidates for president, your country gets blown to smithereens, as we say."

Trump noted that it was "strange" that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was in new York and accorded substantial protection as he attended the United Nations General Assembly at the same time when the news of the threats emerged.

"We have large security forces guarding him, and yet they're threatening our former president and the leading candidate to become the next president of the United States," Trump said, referring to himself.

Trump's remarks come as world leaders are trying to scramble hostilities between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel escalating into a wider regional war.

However, Iran has rejected accusations of its involvement in trying to kill Trump this summer, shortly after a gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania, killing one person and wounding the presidential candidate.

Earlier, Trump posted on social media that if Iran did kill him, "I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth."

In late August, the United States announced that it had foiled a plan by a Pakistani linked to Tehran to assassinate a US official in revenge for the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in 2020 in a US strike in Iraq ordered by then-president Trump.

The intelligence services also warned of attempted cyberattacks on the presidential campaigns of Trump and rival Kamala Harris by actors it says are backed by Iran.