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Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has warned the United States that its forces remain on high alert, even as President Donald Trump said Tehran appears willing to enter negotiations.
In a statement aired by state television on Thursday, Revolutionary Guard commander Gen Mohammad Pakpour said his forces have their "finger on the trigger," cautioning both Washington and Israel against what he described as potential miscalculations.
He urged the US and Israel to draw lessons from past conflicts, including what he called the "12-day imposed war," and said the Guard stood fully prepared to carry out any orders from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Despite the sharp rhetoric, signs of immediate US military action appeared to ease this week. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said the United States had struck Iranian uranium enrichment facilities last year to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
"We can't let that happen," Trump said, adding that Iran "does want to talk," and that the US would engage in discussions.
At the same time, Iran's military leadership issued further warnings. Gen Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, head of Iran's joint command headquarters, said any US attack would make "all US interests, bases and centres of influence" legitimate targets.
Earlier this week, Trump had warned Iran's leaders that the United States would respond decisively if there were any attempt on his life, linking such a scenario to potential retaliation over actions targeting Khamenei.
The heightened tensions come as Iran's leadership deals with the fallout from nationwide protests that erupted in late December. Authorities have since suppressed the unrest through a forceful crackdown, alongside a sweeping internet blackout described by monitoring group NetBlocks as a "national kill-switch," now in its second week.
On Wednesday, Iranian officials released their first official casualty figures from the protests, saying 3,117 people were killed.