A senior Iranian cleric warned that Iran could attack US-linked investments in the region in response to any US attack on the Islamic Republic, Iranian news agencies reported, citing Reuters.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States has an "armada" targeting Iran but hopes it will not have to use it, renewing his warnings to Tehran not to kill protesters or restart its nuclear program.
"A trillion dollars you have invested in the region is under surveillance by our missiles," Mohammad Javad Haj Ali warned Akbari, a cleric and leader of Friday prayers in Tehran ahead of a large gathering. He did not specify what investments he was referring to.
Separately, Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohammad Movahedi denied that Iran had canceled the executions of 800 people arrested during recent nationwide protests, as Trump had claimed.
"This claim is completely false. "There is no such number, nor has the judiciary taken such a decision," Movahedi said, as quoted by the judicial news agency Mizan.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Fox News last week that "Iran has no plan for executions at all" when asked about the anti-government protests.
The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the "alarming violence" used in Iran against protesters, and a group of countries will call on UN investigators to document alleged abuses for future trials.
Human rights groups say thousands of people, including bystanders, have been killed in the unrest, which poses the biggest challenge to Iran's clerical government since 2022.