Iran says Strait of Hormuz completely closed
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Senior Iranian intelligence and security official Ali Shamkhani warned that any aggression against Iran will face an immediate and hard response "beyond the imagination of its designers" following US President Donald Trump's threats to strike Tehran's missile programme, Shamkhani stated on social media on December 29.
"In Iran's defence doctrine, some responses are determined before the threat reaches the implementation stage," Shamkhani wrote on X.
A close confident of the supreme leader, Shamkhani was one of the only few senior, political security and military officials to survive the June 2025 attack on Tehran by Israeli jets, he was reported to have been killed. Still, he appeared days later, heavily injured in the attack on his uptown apartment.
"Iran's missile capability and defence are neither controllable nor require permission. Any aggression will have a hard response, immediate and beyond the imagination of its designers," stated Shamkhani, a former secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
The warning comes hours after Trump threatened to "knock down" Iran's missile programme if Tehran attempts to rebuild capacity, stating he would act "immediately" against nuclear development during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on December 29.
"I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them," Trump stated outside Mar-a-Lago.
Israeli intelligence estimates Iran retained approximately 1,500 missiles following the June war, down from 3,000 previously, with Netanyahu expected to push Trump for fresh military action targeting Tehran's missile production facilities.
The US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities in June following Israeli strikes that targeted nuclear facilities, senior military figures and scientists. Iran responded with missile attacks, including on a US base in Qatar.
Iran has ruled out negotiating over its missile programme, which forms the core of its defence strategy against regional threats.
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