'Trump will pay the price': Iran’s security chief threatens after Khamenei’s killing in US-Israel strikes

The security chief of Iran, Ali Larijani, has stated that US President Donald Trump “will pay the price” for killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The death of the country’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader came after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, sparking a wider conflict 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, said in a post on X on Sunday.

In another statement, he warned Iran’s neighbouring countries that they must stop the US from using their territories to launch attacks on Iran, otherwise Tehran would be forced to take action itself. "When the enemy attacks us from bases in the region, we respond - and we will continue to respond," he said.

Iranian forces had detained some American soldiers: IRGC

Ali Larijani, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also claimed that Iranian forces had detained some American soldiers. While speaking to the state TV, he further said that Iran would 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 added that the United States and Israel were looking to destroy the Islamic Republic apart. "Their issue was... the fundamental disintegration of Iran," he said. He further stated that the US was also looking to bring a similar scenario in Iran as they did with Venezuela, where Delcy Rodriguez has been placed as the interim president under threat of violence after Washington captured her boss, Nicolas Maduro.