US President, Donald Trump issued a chilling warning to Iran if the Middle Eastern nation tried to assassinate him.
On Tuesday, February 4, Trump signed an order in the Oval Office that detailed a 'maximum pressure' campaign, as he worked to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Mr Trump said he also signed the "tough" directive on Iran because Tehran was "too close" to having a nuclear weapon.
He added he would hold talks with his counterpart in Tehran, but warned he has left "instructions" for his advisers that if Iran assassinated him, the US foe "would be obliterated".
"If they did that they would be obliterated," Trump said in an exchange with reporters while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. "I've left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won't be anything left."
When asked to clarify his comments, the president made the same threat.
'That would be called total obliteration,' Trump said. 'I can't imagine they would do that,' he also commented.
Trump tore into President Joe Biden for not giving the same stern warning during the Democrat's four years in office.
'And Biden should have said that, but he never did. I don't know why. Lack of intelligence perhaps? But he never said it,' Trump complained.
The US Justice Department announced in federal charges in November that an Iranian plot to kill Mr Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.
The department alleged Iranian officials had instructed Farhad Shakeri, 51, to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Mr Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran.
It comes as Mr Trump withdrew the US from the UN Human Rights Council in an executive order.
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