U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference during the NATO Summit at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkiye, July 8, 2026. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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After the US Treasury imposed sanctions on alleged Iranian financiers, President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate and destroy” Iran if it acted on its threat to assassinate the president.
Iran said on Saturday that the new financial measures violate a preliminary agreement signed by the warring countries last month, as Iran’s foreign minister reportedly arrived in Oman for talks.
“There are 1,000 missiles blocked and onboard, destined for the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thousands more will be immediately followed up if the Iranian government acts on its threat to assassinate or attempt to assassinate the sitting President of the United States, in this case me!” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Friday.
He added: “The order has been given and the US military is ready, willing and able to completely destroy and destroy all of Iran for one year, subject to extension. Praise be to Allah!”
The Wall Street Journal and other US media outlets reported earlier this week that Israel had shared information about Iran’s plot to assassinate Trump.
Some mourners held banners reading “Kill Trump” at Thursday’s funeral for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike early in the war, Reuters reported.
MASHHAD, IRAN – JULY 9: A large crowd gathers for the burial of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei at the Imam Reza Mausoleum in Mashhad, Iran, on July 9, 2026. (Photo by Majid Saidi/Getty Images)
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In a post on X, Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei’s son and successor to Iran’s supreme leader, promised to take revenge for those killed in the US attack.
Mojtaba Khamenei said: “This revenge is what our country seeks and it must be carried out.” He has not been seen in public since his father and other family members were killed in the Feb. 28 attack that began the war.
Meeting in Oman
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman early Saturday for talks. Oman has become an important intermediary in efforts to end the war.
A senior Middle East diplomat with direct knowledge of the talks told MS Now that France and Britain are considering a proposal drafted by Oman that could allow shipping tolls to be collected in the Strait of Hormuz, as long as the tolls are not mandatory and there is support from the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, which regulates maritime shipping.
After the war began, shipping traffic through the strait virtually stopped as Iranian forces cut off vital energy supplies from the Middle East and oil prices soared.
Under a tentative agreement with the United States, Iran promised safe passage through Hormuz for commercial ships and agreed not to charge tolls for 60 days. In return, the United States lifted its naval blockade against Iran and temporarily lifted sanctions on oil sales.
But in the three weeks since the deal, Iran has maintained that ships have the right to safe passage only if they use the northern route through Iranian territorial waters.
The US president’s latest verbal salvo comes after a day of relative calm following a week of fighting and fears that a fragile ceasefire is crumbling.
President Trump said early Friday that the United States and Iran had agreed to continue peace talks, although the ceasefire established by a preliminary agreement last month had been broken.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic had “asked us to continue the ‘dialogue'” and that “we have agreed to do so.”
“But the United States has told them in no uncertain terms that the ceasefire is over,” Trump wrote.
Iranian state media did not immediately confirm or deny that Iran had called for continued negotiations.
“Technical talk”
President Trump’s post early Friday confirmed MS NOW’s report that U.S. officials said the warring nations remain committed to holding “technical discussions” and finding a solution even if they return to hostilities.
The US military has carried out a new attack on Iran in retaliation for attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The US Treasury subsequently rescinded the exemption that had allowed Iranian oil sales.
The Treasury Department subsequently stepped up pressure on Iran, increasing sanctions against financiers suspected of supporting the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son and new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
“Following Iran’s renewed attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has taken action against Ali Ansari, an Iranian financial intermediary who oversees a global network of assets benefiting Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other regime elites,” the ministry said in a statement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that “the so-called supreme leader is in seclusion while the government collapses.” “The Treasury will continue to use every means at its disposal to isolate him and other regime elites from the global financial system. We will preserve these assets for the Iranian people.”
Araghchi said the move violates a memorandum of understanding signed between the United States and Iran in June.
“Unlike the so-called US Treasury Secretary who is violating Section 9 of the Memorandum of Understanding, Iran has so far kept its promises,” Araghchi said in a post on X.
“This violation follows other violations and missteps by the United States. Reality check: Mutual compliance is the only possibility,” he added.
