Breaking News: Trump escalates rhetoric on Iran in response to country’s latest warnings

President Donald Trump has escalated his warnings to Iran in response to tense rhetoric from the country’s leadership following his calls for regime change.

Asked in a NewsNation interview that aired Tuesday to respond to recent warnings from Iranian officials, Trump said, “Well, they shouldn’t be doing it, but I’ve left notification that anything ever happens, we’re going to blow them up. The whole country is going to get blown up.”

Iran had reiterated a warning to the US that any military action against the country’s leadership would trigger a “devastating retaliation,” the spokesperson for the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces said, as cited by Iran state-run Press TV.

On Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to the US president as a “criminal” over his support for recent anti-government protests. Trump over the weekend referred to Khamenei as a “sick man,” in an interview with Politico, stating that “it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” remarks Tehran has condemned.

Iran’s parliamentary national security commission has declared that an attack on Khamenei, would constitute a “declaration of war with the entire Islamic world” and could prompt a call for a “jihad” or holy war by religious authorities.