Iran threatens 18 huge companies with 'destruction' – employees told 'stay away'

Iran threatens 18 huge companies with 'destruction' – employees told 'stay away'

Eliana Nunes

Iran's IRGC has named 18 companies it says are 'involved in terrorist operations' and warned employees to leave their workplaces immediately to 'preserve their lives'

Iran's most powerful armed force has branded 18 big companies "terrorist spy companies" and declared them "legitimate targets".

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said a number of American multinational companies in the technology and industrial sectors - including Google, Apple, Intel and Boeing - are "involved in terrorist operations", in a statement carried by Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency. Of the 18 companies listed, only two are non-American and owned by entities in the UAE.

"We advise the employees of these institutions to immediately distance themselves from their workplaces to preserve their lives," the statement published on Tuesday afternoon said. "These companies should expect the destruction of their respective units in exchange for each terror act in Iran, starting from 8pm Tehran time on Wednesday, April 1st."

Companies listed by IRGC

1. Cisco 
2. HP 
3. Intel 
4. Oracle 
5. Microsoft 
6. Apple 
7. Google
8. Meta
9. IBM 
10. Dell
11. Palantir
12. Nvidia 
13. JP Morgan 
14. Tesla 
15. General Electric
16. Spire Solutions (a UAE-based cybersecurity solutions and services provider)
17. G42 (a UAE-based artificial intelligence company)
18. Boeing

On Monday, US President Donald Trump threatened widespread destruction of Iran’s energy resources and other vital infrastructure, including desalination plants, if a deal to end the war with Tehran is not reached "shortly".

The threat included Iran's Kharg Island, which Trump suggested US troops could seize in an interview with the Financial Times published the same day.

Trump reiterated on Monday that the US is negotiating with Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, but the former IRGC commander has denied that Iran is holding talks with the US, saying Pakistan-facilitated talks were merely a cover for American troop deployments.

Meanwhile, the US and Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Iran on Monday. Tehran struck a key water and power facility in Kuwait, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE intercepted Iranian missile attacks.

More than 1,900 people in Iran have been killed in US-Israeli strikes, and over 1,200 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes. Nineteen people in Israel and 13 US military members, as well as a number of people on land and at sea in the Gulf region, have also been killed in the ongoing war. Millions of people in Iran and Lebanon have been displaced.