Trump Says He Knows Locations of Remaining Lower-Tier IRGC Leaders and Left Bombing Orders if Assassinated

President Trump stated on July 13 that he knows the locations of remaining lower-tier IRGC leadership but declined to discuss them publicly. He added that the U.S. is watching those leaders and that he left instructions to bomb Iran at levels never seen before if he is assassinated.

U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran began on February 28 and devastated the first and second tiers of Iranian leadership. Sixty-eight-year-old Ahmad Vahidi emerged from retirement to take command of the IRGC after those strikes.

On July 14 Eli Lake stated that it is unrealistic to expect the Iranian people to rise up only months after the February 28 strikes. The U.S. clawed back a key concession to Iran after fresh IRGC attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. had lifted a blockade on Iran under a Memorandum of Understanding that provided Iran a thin lifeline of oil revenue; the blockade was later reinstated.