Dubai – Iranian armed forces on Tuesday warned US President Donald Trump that any U.S. action against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be treated as an act of war and would be met with severe retaliation.

Speaking at a public event, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, the cultural deputy of Iran’s armed forces general staff, dismissed Trump’s remarks.

“We do not take Trump’s noise very seriously,” Shekarchi was quoted as saying.

He added, “Trump knows that if a hand is stretched toward our leader, we will not only cut that hand off – we will set their world on fire. This is not a slogan.”

Shekarchi said Iran would leave “no safe place” for its enemies in the event of any attack.

Trump made his comments on Saturday after Khamenei blamed him for protests in Iran.

“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Politico quoted Trump as saying.

Trump said Iran’s rulers relied on repression and violence to govern.

Tension between the US and Iran has been high since unrest began over Iran’s ailing economy, crippled by US and Western sanctions on December 28.

Trump has drawn two red lines for the Islamic Republic — the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions in the wake of the unrest.

A US aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

Multiple US media reports quoting anonymous officials have said the Lincoln was on its way to the Middle East. It likely would still need several days of travel before its aircraft would be in range of the region.

The death toll in the unrest has reached at least 4,484 people, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Tuesday. The AP has been unable to independently confirm the figure. Iranian authorities also dispute the figure.

Iran’s national police chief, Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, said Monday that people turning themselves in would receive more lenient treatment than those who don’t.

“Those who were deceived by foreign intelligence services and became their soldiers in practice have a chance to turn themselves in,” he said in an interview carried by Iran’s state television Monday. “In case of surrender, definitely there will be a reduction in punishment. They have three days to turn themselves in.”

He did not elaborate on what would happen after the three days. ~AP