Breaking Update: Here’s a clear explanation of the latest developments related to Breaking News:Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warns Israel and US of ‘finger on trigger’– What Just Happened and why it matters right now.
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Thursday warned Washington that the force had its “finger on the trigger” in the wake of its crackdown on mass anti-government protests, even as US President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic still appeared interested in talks.
Trump has repeatedly left open the option of new American military action against Iran. In June 2025, Washington backed and later joined Israel’s 12-day war aimed at degrading the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Two weeks of protests starting in late December shook the clerical leadership under Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but the movement has petered out in the face of a crackdown that activists and government sources say has left thousands dead, accompanied by an unprecedented internet blackout.
On Thursday, IRGC commander General Mohammad Pakpour warned Israel and the United States “to avoid any miscalculations, by learning from historical experiences and what they learned in the 12-day imposed war, so that they do not face a more painful and regrettable fate.”
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dear Iran have their finger on the trigger, more prepared than ever, ready to carry out the orders and measures of the supreme commander-in-chief — a leader dearer than their own lives,” he said, referring to Khamenei.
Another senior military figure, General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who leads the Iranian joint command headquarters, warned that in the case of an attack by the United States, “all US interests, bases and centers of influence” would be “legitimate targets” for the Iranian armed forces.
The prospect of immediate American action against Tehran appears to have receded over the last week, with both sides insisting on giving diplomacy a chance even as US media outlets report that Trump is still studying options.
Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said the US struck Iranian uranium enrichment sites last year to prevent Tehran from making a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies its nuclear program is aimed at seeking the bomb. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
“Can’t let that happen,” he said, adding: “And Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk.”
In a standoff marked by seesawing rhetoric, Trump had on Tuesday warned Iran’s leaders the US would “wipe them off the face of this earth” if there was any attack on his life in response to a strike targeting Khamenei.
Speaking to CNBC this week, Trump said, “We hope that there’s not going to be further action.”
But he warned Iran against advancing its nuclear program.
“We’re going to find out what they’re going to do with nuclear. They can’t do the nuclear… If they do it, [we’re going to strike] again… They keep experimenting with nuclear, and at some point they’re going to get the idea that they can’t do that,” he added.
Speaking at Davos, President Isaac Herzog said “the future for the Iranian people can only be in a regime change,” adding that “the Ayatollah regime is in quite a fragile situation.”
Pakpour’s comments came in a written statement quoted by state television marking the national day in Iran to celebrate the Guards, a force whose mission is to protect the 1979 Islamic revolution from internal and external threats.
The group is sanctioned as a terrorist entity by countries including Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States, and campaigners have long urged similar moves from the EU and UK.
Activists accuse the Guards of playing a frontline role in the deadly crackdown on protests. Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities on Wednesday said 3,117 people were killed.
The statement from Iran’s foundation for martyrs and veterans sought to draw a distinction between “martyrs,” who it said were members of security forces or innocent bystanders, and what it described as “rioters” backed by the US. Of its toll of 3,117, it said 2,427 people were “martyrs.”
However, rights groups say the heavy toll was caused by security forces firing directly on protesters and that the actual number of those killed could be far higher and even extend to over 20,000.
Efforts to confirm the scale of the toll have been hampered by the national internet shutdown, with monitor Netblocks saying it was now two weeks since the authorities reached for the “national kill-switch.”
“All the evidence gradually emerging from inside Iran shows that the real number of people killed in the protests is far higher than the official figure,” said the director of the Iran Human Rights NGO, Mahmood Amriy-Moghaddam, saying the authorities’ toll has “no credibility whatsoever.”
Warning that their own current tolls do not reflect the true number of fatalities, IHR says it has verified at least 3,428 killings, while another NGO, US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), has documented 4,902 deaths.
According to HRANA, at least 26,541 people have been arrested. On Thursday alone, state TV announced over 200 more arrests in provinces including Kermanshah in the west and Isfahan in central Iran.
