A senior Iranian official issued a pointed warning to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, escalating tensions after Iran selected a new supreme leader without consulting the United States and as conflict in the region continues to intensify.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, responded directly to Trump’s recent warnings about Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The sacrificial nation of Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats,” Larijani wrote on the social media platform X in a post translated by The Associated Press. “Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
Larijani’s remarks came after Trump issued a stark warning Monday on Truth Social, threatening severe retaliation if Iran interferes with oil shipments passing through the strategic waterway.
“If Iran does anything that tops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump wrote.
“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!” he continued. “This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated.”
The exchange comes as Iran moves forward with a major leadership transition following the death of longtime supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s governing clerical establishment selected his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader — a move that has drawn scrutiny abroad and further strained relations with Washington.
Trump said he is skeptical that Iran’s new leader will bring stability to the region.
“I don’t believe he can live in peace,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the new supreme leader of Iran, “would be wise to heed the words of our president, which is to not pursue nuclear weapons and come out and state as such.”
The leadership change comes amid a rapidly expanding regional conflict. Iranian forces launched a new wave of attacks Tuesday targeting Israel and several U.S.-aligned Gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, according to The Associated Press.
In Bahrain, an Iranian strike on a residential building killed a 29-year-old woman and injured eight others.
The escalating confrontation follows the U.S.-Israeli joint military campaign against Iranian targets, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, which began Feb. 28 and aimed to dismantle Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons capabilities.
The conflict has also disrupted global energy markets.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it would block oil exports from the region in response to the attacks.
The Guard said it would not “allow the export of even a single liter of oil from the region to the hostile side and its partners until further notice.”
The threat has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply typically passes through the strait each day, making it one of the most critical energy chokepoints in the world.
Shipping traffic has slowed dramatically.
According to monitoring data from hormuzstraitmonitor.com, only two ships passed through the strait in the last 24 hours — far below the typical average of about 60 daily vessels. As of Tuesday, 157 ships remain stranded near the passage, including 98 oil tankers and 34 bulk carriers.
The disruption has already driven up energy prices.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the benchmark for North American markets, rose to just over $90 per barrel Tuesday morning. The national average price for gasoline in the United States climbed to $3.54 per gallon, according to AAA.
Trump has defended the military campaign despite the economic fallout, arguing that higher fuel prices are a necessary cost to eliminate Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The spike in oil prices is a “very small price to pay,” he said.
Still, some lawmakers worry the administration may not have fully anticipated the economic consequences.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) criticized the White House for appearing unprepared for the energy market shock.
“For heaven’s sakes, are you telling me you didn’t game this one out?” she told Punchbowl News last week. “I’m starting to think they didn’t game this one out.”
With tensions rising and oil markets rattled, the confrontation between Washington and Tehran appears poised to intensify as Iran’s new leadership consolidates power and the U.S. continues its military pressure campaign.
On Tuesday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon that Iran is “fighting, and I respect that.”
“But I don’t think they’re more formidable than what we thought,” he added about Tehran’s defensive capabilities.
“Our strikes mean we’ve made significant progress in reducing the number of missile and drone attacks out of Iran,” Caine also said. “Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downward, 90% from where they’ve started, and one-way attack drones have decreased 83%, since the beginning of the operation.”
