Iran has declared that all businesses owned by Elon Musk located in the Middle East will be considered legitimate military targets during any retaliatory actions against the United States, according to a report from the Iranian Fars News Agency.
The list of potential targets includes ground station facilities for the Starlink satellite internet service.
This announcement coincides with a social media post from U.S. President Donald Trump, who warned that America would launch a "powerful strike against Iran tonight."
The Iranian state media outlet Fars News Agency reported on Thursday that Iran, in its retaliatory measures against the U.S., would classify all of Elon Musk's Middle Eastern operations, including the Starlink internet business of SpaceX, as military objectives.
A translated report posted on Fars News Agency's Telegram channel indicated that Iran's scope for strikes covers "all economic assets under Elon Musk's control in West Asia," which encompasses a regional ground station for the Starlink network.
Citing an informed source, Fars News Agency stated that Iran believes the United States, with the cooperation of Musk's affiliated companies, has committed war crimes against Iran.
The source said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to strike all facilities operated by Musk's companies in the region and the occupied territories."
Previously, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also issued threats against other U.S. technology firms such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Google.
Around the same time Fars published this report, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his personal social media platform, warning that the United States would carry out a "high-intensity powerful strike against Iran tonight."
In the same post, Trump claimed that the U.S. would soon take control of Iran's key oil export hub, Kharg Island, along with "several other oil infrastructure sites."
SpaceX and the White House have not yet responded to CNBC's requests for comment on the report.
This warning from Iran about targeting Musk's Middle Eastern industrial assets comes against a backdrop of recent successive rounds of airstrikes between the U.S. and Iran, which have stalled peace agreement talks and rendered an already fragile ceasefire effectively meaningless.
Trump has accused Iran of shooting down a U.S. military helicopter conducting a patrol mission over the Strait of Hormuz on Monday evening.
The U.S. launched retaliatory airstrikes on Tuesday, which were met with a military counter-response from Iran; the U.S. then fired multiple missiles at Iranian targets again on Wednesday.
In a Fox News interview on Thursday morning, Trump stated, "Last night we dropped $250 million worth of bombs on Iran."
Comments