Iran brands Trump a 'terrorist in a suit' after attack threat

Published Jan 5, 2020

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Dubai - Iran condemned Donald Trump on

Sunday as a "terrorist in a suit" after the US president

threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites hard if Tehran attacks

Americans or US assets in retaliation for the killing of

military commander Qassem Soleimani.

As the two countries assailed each other in a war of words,

the European Union, Britain and Oman urged the parties to seek

to de-escalate the crisis.

Soleimani, Iran's pre-eminent military commander, was killed

on Friday in a US drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad

airport, an attack that took long-running hostilities between

Washington and Tehran into uncharted territory and raised the

spectre of wider conflict in the Middle East.

"Like ISIS, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate

cultures. Trump is a terrorist in a suit. He will learn history

very soon that NOBODY can defeat 'the Great Iranian Nation &

Culture'," Information and Telecommunications Minister Mohammad

Javad Azari-Jahromi tweeted.

Soleimani was the architect of Tehran’s overseas clandestine

and military operations as head of the Revolutionary Guards’

Quds Force. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised on

Friday that Iran would seek harsh revenge for his death.

Trump responded to that and other strong words from Tehran

with a series of tweets on Saturday, saying Iran "is talking

very boldly about targeting certain USA assets".

The United States has "targeted 52 Iranian sites", some "at

a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and

those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY

HARD", he said.

The 52 targets represented the 52 Americans held hostage in

Iran after being seized at the U.S. Embassy in 1979 during the

country's Islamic Revolution, Trump said.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations and on

Sunday, Iran summoned the Swiss envoy representing U.S.

interests in Tehran to protest at "Trump's hostile remarks",

according to Iranian state television.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged

Iran's foreign minister by phone on Sunday to work to

de-escalate the situation and invited him to Brussels to discuss

ways of preserving world powers' 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

It was Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the deal

in 2018 and reimposition of sanctions on Iran that touched off a

new spiral of tensions after a brief thaw following the accord.

Iran will decide on Sunday about its next step to further

roll back its commitments to the nuclear deal, Foreign Ministry

spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying.

"Tonight, there will be a very important meeting to decide

about our next nuclear step and the implementation of the deal

... considering the recent threats (by America) it should be

underlined that in politics, all developments and threats are

linked to each other," state news agency IRNA quoted him as

saying.

People attend a funeral procession for Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Picture: Hossein Mersadi/Fars news agency/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

IRAQI LAWMAKERS WANT US FORCES OUT

In Iraq, many people including opponents of Soleimani have

expressed anger at Washington for killing him and Iraqi militia

leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on Iraqi soil and potentially

dragging their country into another war.

Lawmakers planned a special parliamentary session on Sunday

to push for a vote on a resolution requiring the government to

ask Washington to withdraw U.S. troops from the country.

"There is no need for the presence of American forces after

defeating Daesh (Islamic State). We have our own armed forces

which are capable of protecting the country," said Ammar

al-Shibli, a member of parliament's legal committee.

Despite decades of enmity between Iran and the United

States, Iran-backed militia and U.S. troops fought side by side

during Iraq's 2014-2017 war against Islamic State militants.

The militia were incorporated into government forces under

the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces led by Muhandis.

Some 5,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, most in an advisory role.

Pakistani Shi'a Muslims participate in a rally to condemn the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani by a US airstrike in Iraq. Picture: Anjum Naveed/Reuters

IRAN SAYS U.S. HAS NO COURAGE FOR WAR

Iran's army chief, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, was

quoted by state television on Sunday as saying the United States

lacked the courage for military confrontation with Iran.

"In a potential conflict in the future, which I don't think

they (Americans) have the courage to carry out, there it will

become clear where the numbers five and two will belong," he

said.

Trump said on Friday Soleimani had been plotting imminent

attacks on U.S. diplomats and military personnel. Democratic

critics said the Republican president's action was reckless and

risked more bloodshed in a dangerous region.

Oman has called on the United States and Iran to seek

dialogue to ease tensions, Oman News Agency reported on Sunday.

Oman, which maintains friendly ties with both the United States

and Iran, has previously been a go-between for the two

countries.

British foreign minister Dominic Raab described Soleimani as

a "regional menace" and said he was sympathetic to the situation

the United States found itself in, while also calling for crisis

diplomacy to avoid war.

"There is a route through which allows Iran to come in from

out of the international cold," Raab told Sky News. "We need to

contain the nefarious actions of Iran but we also need to

de-escalate and stabilise the situation."

SOLEIMANI'S BODY RETURNS TO IRAN

Thousands of mourners turned out to pay respects to

Soleimani after his body was returned to Iran, the official IRIB

news agency reported. It posted a video clip of a casket wrapped

in an Iranian flag being unloaded from a plane in the

southwestern town of Ahvaz as a military band played.

Live state TV footage showed thousands of mourners marching

through Ahvaz beating their chests.

While many Iranians have rallied to show grief over the

death of Soleimani, seen as Iran's second most powerful figure

after Khamenei, others worry it might push Iran into war with a

superpower.

Reuters

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