Chilling warning to Iran over Trump's 'locked and loaded' threat as regime defies him and kills 50 protesters
SOURCE:Daily Mail
Iranian citizens have taken to the streets since early January to protest the cost-of-living in the Middle Eastern country.
A former military general issued a chilling warning to Iran after President Donald Trump threatened the Middle Eastern country over cost-of-living protests.
Last week, Trump threatened Iran with war amid a violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters, telling the country's leaders that the US would 'come to [protesters'] rescue' if they kept being killed.
Jack Keane, a retired general and Fox contributor, is now cautioning the Iranian regime to deeply consider Trump's threats as legitimate.
'I would take President Trump dead serious here,' he said on Fox News Friday night.
'Anybody at this point that doesn’t take President Trump serious when he’s saying something like this, given the last year, is certainly reckless and irresponsible,' he said.
Operation Midnight Hammer marked the end of a 45-year stand-off between the United States and Iran, and the president warned the country to not rebuild its nuclear program.
Jack Keane, a retired general and Fox contributor, warned Iran to take President Donald Trump's threats 'dead serious'
Last week, Trump threatened Iran with war as civilians were being killed during protests
'Don't play games when this president's in office,' Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, told the press after the Venezuela strike. 'It's not going to turn out well.'
Earlier this month, Trump told Iran in a Truth Social post: 'We are locked and loaded and ready to go.'
Regime spokesman, Ali Larijani, who serves as the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, responded to the President's threat on X at the time by blaming Israel and the US for encouraging the protests.
Iran and Israel have been engaged in a 40-year proxy war that escalated in 2024 as the two Middle East countries launched missiles directly at each other.
Trump, in June, backed Israel by launching Operation Midnight Hammer after Israel and Iran faced a 12-day war.
Iranian officials have repeatedly blamed Western countries for stoking anti-regime protests amid economic slowdown in the country.
However, Keane said Iran's regime is at its 'weakest point' and has 'no prospect of recovering.'
Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, reportedly has a backup plan to flee to Moscow if the US strikes. He also predicted the US leader would be 'overthrown' like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution
So far, at least 50 protesters have been killed during the protests
The protests started following the collapse of Iran's rial currency
'Politically, [the Iranian regime] can't meet the social and political and economic aspirations of the people,' Keane said on Fox News. 'Economically, they're in the tank, to be sure, and with no prospect of recovering.
'And, militarily, they just lost a war. They've lost their platform in Syria. Their proxies are, by and large, decapitated and almost eliminated, to be sure. The result of all of that is they are in a fundamentally weak position, and it's serious in terms of the regime.'
Although he admitted he didn't know if the Trump Administration would administer a military strike, he said he does believe that the president is 'dead serious.'
Civilian demonstrations are said to have taken place in over 220 Iranian towns and cities in 26 of Iran's 31 provinces - resulting in the arrests of up to 2,500 people.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, the Republican said earlier this week, without elaborating: 'We're watching it very closely. If they start killing people, like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States.'
The Iranian death toll is expected to increase as local hospitals report being overrun with casualties, including many with gunshot wounds.
Iranian rights group HRANA reported 65 deaths including 50 protesters and 15 security personnel as of January 9.
Trump's threat appeared to have spooked Iran's dictatorial leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who reportedly has a backup plan to flee to Moscow if his security forces fail to suppress the ever-growing protests.
The US has already struck Iran in June using B-2 bombers at the Fordow site (pictured) to neutralize the country's nuclear program
Last weekend, Trump struck Venezuela (pictured) and captured its President Nicolas Maduro for drug trafficking charges
The Times of London reported that the 86-year-old autocrat is planning on fleeing with up to 20 aides and members of his family, should his army and security forces desert, deflect, or fail to quell the demonstrations.
An intelligence source told the newspaper: 'The "plan B" is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba.'
They added that Khamenei has already laid the groundwork needed to escape the country, which included 'gathering assets, properties abroad and cash to facilitate their safe passage.'
However, on Friday, Khamenei insisted the republic would 'not back down.'
Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late Thursday and added early Friday that the country has 'now been offline for 12 hours...in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests.'
The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges yet to the Islamic republic in its over four-and-a half decades of existence, with protesters openly calling for an end to its theocratic rule.
But Khamenei struck a defiant tone in his first comments on the protests that have been escalating since January 3, calling the demonstrators 'vandals' and 'saboteurs,' in a speech broadcast on state TV.
Up to 2,500 Iranians have been arrested from the protests
Khamenei insisted the republic would 'not back down' and cut internet access to help stale the protests from continuing
Khamenei said 'arrogant' Donald Trump's hands 'are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians', in apparent reference to Israel's June war against the Islamic republic which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.
He predicted the US leader would be 'overthrown' like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.