On Iranian TV, cleric calls for ‘shedding’ of blood from Israelis and Trump

Tehran continues to threaten Washington and Jerusalem, as FM says US will ‘bitterly regret’ sinking warship and diplomat says if US deploys ground forces it will get ‘many coffins’

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian state television aired a message Thursday from an ayatollah in Iran calling for the “shedding” of blood from Israelis and US President Donald Trump, as the Islamic Republic continued to threaten revenge and repercussions for the war being waged against it by the US and Israel.

The message from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented one of the few clerical statements coming from Iran as it faces a combined airstrike campaign from the two countries.

“We are now on the verge of a great test and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance,” he said in the statement.

He called for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.”

“The imam of the time says, ‘Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders,’” the ayatollah added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that they had hit a US tanker in the northern part of the Gulf and the vessel was on fire. There was no confirmation from the US. The Guards said in the statement carried by state media that, in time of war, passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be under the control of the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier that Washington “will bitterly regret the precedent it has set” in its torpedo attack on the Iranian frigate Dena in international waters on Wednesday, which sank the ship and apparently led to the deaths of most of the crew.

Araghchi said the strike occurred without warning and called it “an atrocity.”

Another threat came from Iran’s Ambassador to South Korea Saeed Koozechi, who said at a news conference that “many coffins would return to the United States” if it decided to deploy ground forces, and defended Iranian strikes on Gulf states hosting US military bases as unavoidable. Koozechi demanded that Seoul — a key US ally — be more vocal in demanding a halt to what he called an illegal aggression.

On Wednesday an Iranian military official told the semi-official ISNA news agency the country will target the Israeli nuclear site of Dimona if Israel and the US seek regime change in the Islamic Republic.

Washington and Jerusalem have said the aim of the operations is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb and to destroy the Islamic Republic’s long-range ballistic missile program. Israel has also actively encouraged Iranians to overthrow their regime, while the US has offered mixed messaging but indicated it would welcome such a change.

The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, near the city of Dimona, is believed to be key to Israel’s long-suspected atomic weapons program. Israel does not confirm or deny having nuclear weapons. The site, located in the Negev southern region of the country, is among the most protected locations in the country, with measures believed to include the full range of Israel’s air defense systems.

Iran launched a new wave of missile attacks Thursday at Israel and American bases, while Israel said it had begun a new “large-scale” attack on Tehran.

Israel announced multiple incoming Iranian missile attacks overnight and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Iranian state television said additional strikes also targeted US bases. The IDF said it launched attacks in Lebanon targeting the Hezbollah terror group and a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Iran’s capital. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in Tehran a short time later.

The tempo of American and Israeli strikes on Iran was so intense Wednesday that state television announced the mourning ceremony for supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the conflict, would be postponed. Millions attended the funeral of his predecessor, ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989.

US President Donald Trump praised the US military for “doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly.” Fellow Republicans in the US Senate stood with Trump on Iran as they voted down a resolution seeking to halt the war.

Iran has fired on the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel and Cyprus as the conflict has spiraled. Turkey said NATO defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey’s airspace.

The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. It has disrupted the supply of the world’s oil and gas, snarled international shipping and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.

Countries around the region braced for potential dangers Thursday, a day after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard threatened “the complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure.”

Qatar’s Interior Ministry said authorities were evacuating residents near the US Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution, without providing further details.

Fighter jets could be heard overhead in the UAE city of Dubai and Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan.

A new attack off the coast of Kuwait appeared to expand the area where commercial shipping was in danger. An explosion rocked the area early Thursday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center run by the British military. It said a tanker apparently came under attack, but the agency did not offer a cause. Iran in the past has attacked ships by attaching limpet mines to them.

Prior attacks since fighting began Saturday have happened in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, which connects it to the Persian Gulf and through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped.

Brent crude prices are up 15% since the start of the conflict as Iranian attacks have disrupted traffic through the strait, with the current price the highest since July 2024.

The Israeli military is planning for at least one or two more weeks of operations against Iran, during which it aims to hit thousands more Iranian regime targets, The Times of Israel learned on Wednesday.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday the timeline was not set.

“You can say four weeks, but it could be six. It could be eight. It could be three,” Hegseth said at a press conference. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we’re going to keep them off balance.”

US and Israeli military officials say launches from Iran have declined as their attacks have taken out ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. Israel’s Home Front Command announced it was easing restrictions that closed workplaces nationwide. It said workplaces could reopen Thursday at noon if there is a shelter nearby. Schools remain closed.