President Donald Trump has been asked whether Americans should be concerned about potential retaliatory attacks on the U.S.
As tensions between Iran, Israel and the United States continue to escalate, concerns about retaliation have risen. After Iran was hit by a wave of air strikes on February 28, carried out jointly by the US and Israel, many people are wondering what will happen next.
Fighting has continued in the days since. President Donald Trump has already warned that the conflict could last for weeks.
He posted a video on Truth Social saying: “It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon. We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated.”
Trump on whether Americans should be worried or not
So far, Iran’s response has mainly targeted US and Israeli interests in the Middle East. However, concerns have also been raised about the possibility that Iran could carry out strikes inside the United States.
In an interview with TIME, Trump acknowledged that risk when asked directly whether Americans should be worried.
“I guess. But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time,” he responded. “We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
“Every individual in this country right now needs to be aware of the threat”
Former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat protection Sam Vinograd said in an interview with CBS News: “It is clear that it is an all-hands-on-deck moment, not just for the US government, but for every American when it comes to countering the regime’s ability to attack the homeland.”
“Every individual in this country right now needs to be aware of the threat from proxies, from individuals that the regime hires.”
According to Vinograd, Iran represents what she described as a “multidimensional threat.”
“They seek to inflict damage in our physical spaces, in cyberspace and in terms of the actual information that we’re ingesting and digesting and circulating right now.”
In the same TIME interview, Trump also spoke about what could come next for Iran following Khamenei’s death.
“One of the things I’m going to be asking for is the ability to work with them on choosing a new leader,” said Trump. “I’m not going through this to end up with another Khamenei. I want to be involved in the selection. They can select, but we have to make sure it’s somebody that’s reasonable to the United.”
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