US President Donald Trump is continuing to push his aides to devise what he calls “decisive” military options against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, days after the American leader called off strikes against the Islamic Republic.

Citing US officials, the report said Trump has repeatedly employed the word “decisive” when discussing what outcome he would want from an American attack on Iran, leading aides at the White House and Pentagon to draw up an array of options for him — among them actions that would be aimed at toppling the regime.

Other options that are more limited in aim reportedly include strikes on facilities linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Officials quoted by the US newspaper said Trump still hasn’t ruled out strikes, though it’s unclear what he may ultimately decide, with the deliberations coming as an American aircraft carrier group moved westward toward the Middle East from Asia.

Meanwhile, American fighter jets and other equipment also appear to be moving to the Mideast after a major US military deployment to the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Tehran has said in the past that it would target Israel and US military targets in the Middle East if Trump were to order strikes.

The comments by Araghchi, who saw his invitation to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over over a brutal crackdown on recent protests in Iran, came in an opinion article also published by The Wall Street Journal.

The Iranian foreign minister contended that “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence.

Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite the internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.

“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June. “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

He added: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”

An Iranian official in the region said this week that the authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests in Iran, including about 500 security personnel.

Activists believe the death toll to be far higher, but the numbers cannot be verified amid an ongoing internet blackout.

There have been reports that the families of protesters killed have been coerced into saying their relatives were members of the security forces in an apparent attempt to inflate that toll.

Speaking on Tuesday at the White House, Trump reiterated his claim that Iran halted plans to execute protesters last week after threats from Washington.

“They were going to hang 837 people, and… we let them know that if that happens, that will be a very bad day for them, and they decided not to do it,” he said. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen in the future, but supposedly they’ve taken that off the table.”

The US president had threatened to strike Iran if it killed protesters, which the regime proceeded to do in the thousands.

But toward the end of last week, the president indicated that he had pulled back from plans to attack due to Iran’s purported cancellation of planned hangings of protesters.

The Islamic Republic has not publicly confirmed those plans.

Amnesty International said Tuesday that Iranian authorities planned to execute 19-year-old Amirhossein Ghaderzadeh on Wednesday over his participation in protests in Rasht in Gilan province.

Meanwhile, Iran warned Trump not to take any action against the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, days after the US president called for an end to Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign.

Iranian General Abolfazl Shekarchi was quoted as saying Trump already knew Tehran would not hold back if the tables were turned.

“Trump knows that if a hand of aggression is extended toward our leader, we will not only sever that hand, and this is not a mere slogan,” Shekarchi was quoted as telling Iranian state media. “But we will set their world on fire and leave them no safe haven in the region.”

In an apparent response, Trump repeated his warning that the United States will “wipe” out Iran if Tehran were to assassinate him.

“The whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump said in an interview with NewsNation. “I have very firm instructions — anything happens, they’re going to wipe them off the face of this earth.”

PARIS, France — Iran’s foreign minister hit out at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos late Monday for canceling his appearance over a brutal crackdown on recent protests and said the decision was based on “lies and political pressure from Israel,” earning a sharp rebuke from President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday.

Protests in Iran sparked by economic strain in late December exploded into the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years, with the full scale of the violent crackdown yet to emerge due to an internet blackout.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had been slated to speak on Tuesday at the annual gathering of global elites in Switzerland, but was disinvited after the WEF said it would not be “right” due to the “loss of lives of civilians in Iran over the past few weeks.”

Araghchi said on X that his appearance was canceled “on the basis of lies and political pressure from Israel and its US-based proxies and apologists.”

He called it a “blatant double standard” to disinvite him while inviting Israel after its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, saying it “conveys moral depravity and intellectual bankruptcy.”

Iranian officials have said the recent demonstrations were peaceful before descending into “riots” fueled by the United States and Israel in an effort to destabilize the nation.

Araghchi’s post on X was accompanied by a video saying the demonstrations were a “terror operation” spurred by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

In a statement released by his office, President Isaac Herzog hit back at Araghchi, stating: “The same murderous Iranian regime massacring its own people day after day, executing innocent women and men for daring to call for their freedom, and spreading terror and death across the Middle East is in no position to lecture others on ‘morality.’”

“International condemnation of the Iranian regime is not the result of political pressure, but of a simple and undeniable truth: the Iranian regime is the head of the snake that arms, funds, and directs Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist proxies committing crimes against humanity,” the statement read.

“While President Herzog represents a democracy that defends its citizens and the free world against murderous terrorism, Iran’s foreign minister represents a brutal and tyrannical regime that attempts to mask its heinous crimes with hollow rhetoric,” it added.

Rights groups say they have verified at least several thousand protesters killed by Iranian security forces, with some estimates putting the true figure as high as 20,000 dead.

The Norway-based nonprofit Iran Human Rights, which has verified the deaths of at least 3,428 protesters, said on Monday that “all indications are that this massacre was planned and carried out with full coordination” by the Islamic Republic.