Three minutes of video on Iranian state television. In it, the claim that the American president's 20-year-old son has been under surveillance and that a 10 million dollar reward has been offered for killing him.

The US Secret Service confirmed it is aware of the footage. "The Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that may be considered a threat to the people we protect," the spokesperson said. A formulation carefully chosen to say neither that the threat is real nor that it is not.

Propaganda or plan

And that is the real question. A state television station broadcasting a video with an alleged price on someone's head is doing one of two things: announcing an intention, or manufacturing fear for a domestic audience. Both are the behaviour of a state rather than an individual, and both carry consequences.

The context is not calm. The confrontation involving the US, Israel and Iran has been running for six months, since it began in February. According to news agency reporting, Israel repeatedly warned the Americans over the past year about Iranian plans to assassinate Trump. Trump himself has said he is "number one on the Iranian hit list".

When the family becomes the target

What sets this footage apart is that the target is not a politician. A twenty-year-old who holds no office, takes no decisions and signs nothing. If that is the new line, then the definition of a legitimate target has been cancelled.

The Balkans know this scene by heart: as long as threats hang in the air, nobody answers for them, and when they materialise, everyone is surprised. Will anyone answer for three minutes of broadcast programming? Hardly. State broadcasters rarely have an address where accountability can be delivered.