Khamenei's Top Aide Warns 'Won't Leave Trump Alone'. He Responds

Iran's security chief Ali Larijani on Sunday said that US President Donald Trump "will pay" the price for killing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, killing its 86-year-old supreme leader and triggering a war in the Middle East.

"We will relentlessly avenge the blood of our leader and our people. Trump must pay and will pay," Larijani, a close aide of Khamenei, posted on X on Sunday.

Trump dismissed the threats and said he doesn't know Larijani.

"I have no idea what he's talking about, who he is. I couldn't care less," he told CBS News, adding that Larijani has "already been defeated."

He also reiterated that the American strikes will continue on Iran and demanded an "unconditional surrender" from Tehran.

Larijani, in a separate post on X, had also told Iran's neighbours that they should either "prevent the US from using their territory against Iran, or we will have no choice but to do it ourselves".

"When the enemy attacks us from bases in the region, we respond - and we will continue to respond," he said.

Larijani, the former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also claimed that Iran has "captured some American soldiers".

In an interview with the state TV, he said that Iran will not "leave Trump alone".

"We will not leave him alone. He must pay the price for what he did. He killed our leader and martyred more than 1,000 of our people. This is not a simple matter," Larijani said.

He said that the United States and Israel were seeking to break the Islamic republic apart.

"Their issue was... the fundamental disintegration of Iran," he said.

He also said that the US was seeking to replicate in Iran a scenario similar to Venezuela, where interim president Delcy Rodriguez has cooperated with it under threat of violence after Washington captured her boss, Nicolas Maduro.

"I think the most important problem the Americans have is that they do not understand the context of West Asia, especially Iran," Larijani, who had been overseeing Iran's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with the United States, said.

"Their perception was that it would be like Venezuela -- they would strike, take control and it would be over -- but now they are trapped," Larijani, whose brother Sadeq Larijani, a cleric, is a potential contender for the supreme leader job, said.

US-Israel-Iran Tensions

The Middle East has been plunged into chaos after the US and Israel carried out joint strikes on Iran last Saturday, killing Ali Khamenei.

In response, Iran has been launching missiles at Israel and at American military bases in Gulf countries.

According to reports, more than 1,000 people have so far been killed in Iran and over a dozen in Israel. At least six US troops have also been killed in the war.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed that they launched strikes on Iran as it posed an imminent threat.

"If we didn't do it first, they would have done it to Israel and give us a shot, if that was possible," Trump has said.