Iran’s army chief announced a $30,000 bounty Sunday for anyone who kills or captures an American service member, as Tehran’s armed forces escalated threats against U.S. personnel and separately vowed to continue confronting the United States until its enemies are “completely” defeated and forced to “surrender.”
“Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army,” Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami said at a ceremony honoring journalists.
“Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward,” he added.
Hatami said the initiative was created following a “large number of requests” from Iranians seeking to financially support attacks against American forces. Under the plan, he said, the weapon used to kill an American would also be purchased at twice its value, replaced with a new weapon, and preserved in a museum.
The army chief did not specify where or under what circumstances Americans were expected to be targeted. No U.S. ground forces are known to be deployed inside Iran, outside of combat search-and-rescue operations in April after an American F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iranian territory.
Both members of the two-man crew ejected and were ultimately recovered alive. The pilot was rescued within hours, while the aircraft’s weapons systems officer (WSO) evaded Iranian forces for nearly two days before being recovered in a massive U.S. rescue operation involving special operations forces and scores of aircraft.
Hatami coupled the bounty with a broader threat to drive American forces from the region, declaring that U.S. forces “no longer have permission to enter the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, or the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The only way is for the Americans to leave the region,” Hatami said. “We have won on this path and are consolidating our victory.”
Hatami described the Strait of Hormuz as a “God-given geopolitical asset for the Iranian nation” that “will never return to its former state.”
“We will protect this capacity with all our power,” he said.
The remarks came after President Donald Trump declared Friday that he would soon designate the strategic waterway as American territory as the United States maintains what the president has described as an impenetrable naval blockade around Iran.
“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump told a rally on Long Island.
Hatami called Trump’s declaration a “grave mistake” and issued a threat against any attempt to challenge Iran over the strategic waterway.
“The criminal president of the United States says he wants to declare the Strait of Hormuz part of the territory of crime. You’ve got some nerve!” Hatami said. “Even joking about such a statement is completely unacceptable, because this is Iran, and it has defenders who will break your legs.”
Hatami also attempted to mock extraordinary security precautions taken to protect Trump from a reported Iranian threat during the president’s trip to Turkey for the NATO summit last month.
“The image of someone who hides in a food truck out of fear and leaves other members of the government and journalists on a plane that the U.S. Secret Service claims was under threat is the image of a big loser,” Hatami said.
Trump confirmed earlier this week that the Secret Service and U.S. military directed him to secretly switch aircraft in Ankara because of a threat, saying he followed their security instructions while largely dismissing the danger.
“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” Trump said.
The bounty comes amid an escalating Iranian propaganda campaign targeting American forces and Trump personally. A massive billboard displayed in Tehran this week depicted the skeleton of an American soldier wearing a U.S. flag patch lying along the Strait of Hormuz, while other regime displays have explicitly threatened Trump.
Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran against carrying out its longstanding threats against him. Last month, the president revealed he had left instructions for a devastating American response should Iran succeed in assassinating him.
“I’ve been on their list for a long time. That’s what we’re dealing with,” Trump said. “The only thing is, I’ve left instructions — if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.”
Trump subsequently warned on Truth Social that “1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” threatening to “completely decimate and destroy all areas of Iran” should Tehran assassinate or attempt to assassinate him.
Hatami’s announcement Sunday was accompanied by similarly escalatory rhetoric from the highest levels of Iran’s military and political leadership.
The General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces vowed it “will not back down” until “completely defeating the American-Zionist adversaries in the region, upholding the rights of the heroic Iranian nation, and forcing the enemy to surrender.”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf — who has also served as one of Tehran’s principal negotiators with Washington — separately declared that Iran had already defeated the United States and Israel militarily and politically.
“I say with complete conviction that we won this war, both militarily and politically,” Ghalibaf said, claiming the United States and Israel had failed to accomplish any of their objectives.
The aggressive public posture comes as negotiations remain stalled and Washington continues searching for a diplomatic path through Iran’s fractured power structure.
Axios reported Sunday that the Trump administration established a previously undisclosed backchannel to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in May after U.S. officials began questioning whether Iran’s formal negotiators were actually empowered to make a deal.
Then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard enlisted Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani to establish contact with Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, according to the report. Vahidi, who has since been appointed commander of the IRGC, reportedly assured Barzani at the time that the powerful military organization backed Iran’s negotiating team.
“I fully support them and this is also the position of the IRGC,” Vahidi reportedly said. “We prefer to solve this crisis through negotiations.”
The administration subsequently explored secret talks in Erbil, but the meeting never materialized after Iranian officials raised concerns that Israel could target their delegation, according to Axios. Barzani has more recently offered the White House his assistance in restarting negotiations.
The disclosure underscored the stark divide between Tehran’s diplomatic messaging and its increasingly aggressive public posture: the man who now commands the IRGC privately conveyed support for negotiations in May, while Iran’s military leadership is now offering cash rewards for Americans to be killed or captured and pledging to continue the confrontation until its enemies surrender.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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