E-Paper
Iran says will target US firms in West Asia starting Apr 1; Microsoft, Google, Apple on list of 18: 'Expect destruction'
"These companies should expect destruction of their units in exchange for each terror act in Iran, starting from 8 pm Tehran time on Wednesday," IRGC said.
Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on Tuesday that they will target American companies, and not just those working on military bases, in West Asia/Gulf region as of April 1, if more Iranian leaders were killed in "targeted assassinations".
The 18 companies listed in the IRGC's threat included Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing.
"These companies should expect the destruction of their respective units in exchange for each terror act in Iran, starting from 8 pm Tehran time on Wednesday, April 1," the IRGC statement said, as per state media. Tehran's 8 pm means 4:30 pm in GMT/UTC, and 10:30 pm in India (IST).
Follow | Live updates on the US-Iran conflict
"We advise the employees of these institutions to immediately leave their workplaces to preserve their lives," it added.
American companies on the IRGC hit list included Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard or HP, Cisco, Intel, Oracle, Apple, Meta Platforms (which owns Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram), International Business Machines or IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Tesla, General Electric, and Boeing.
Microsoft and Apple, for instance, have corporate offices and significant retail presence in the United Arab Emirates, primarily centered in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Also read | Has Apple closed all its stores in the UAE? Viral claim fact-checked
AI tech has role in war: IRGC
In its statement, the IRGC reportedly stressed that information technology and artificial intelligence companies play a key role in planning and executing operations targeting Iran. Companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, besides Google and Microsoft, are among AI pioneers.
AI companies have been working, or have worked in the past, with the US and Israeli militaries in directing unmanned drones and target-selection.
It is worth noting that the IRGC made similar threats in the past, however a deadline gives more heft to this warning.
Another assassination confirmed
Earlier in the day, the IRGC confirmed the killing of a Brigadier General in a US-Israeli airstrike.
Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief Ahmad Vahidi issued a message of condolences for Jamshid Eshaghi, the head of the budget and financial affairs at Iran's armed forces general staff.
Jamshid Eshaghi was sanctioned by the US in 2025 over an international network shipping oil to China and using profits to fund Tehran-backed regional proxies like Hezbollah.
The general staff is a powerful military body that coordinates between the regular army and the ideological force of the Islamic republic, the IRGC.
Vahidi, whose predecessor was killed at the start of the conflict, said Eshaghi had been killed along with several members of his family in a US-Israeli strike, without giving a date or further details.
He praised Eshaghi for "improving the strength of the defence forces of the homeland", according to the message published by the state-run IRNA news agency.
In February 2025, the US treasury sanctioned Eshaghi and other individuals, entities and vessels over what it said was an “international network for facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars to China.” It said revenues are used to fund militant groups in the region including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
He is the latest top Iranian official to have been confirmed by Tehran to have been killed in the war.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the war on February 28 and the Islamic republic's powerful security chief, Ali Larijani, was killed earlier this month, along with over a dozen other prominent figures.
Israel and the United States have said they have dealt a major blow to Iran by killing top officials, but some analysts say the Islamic republic is still showing resilience and capacity to recover from setbacks.
