US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Saturday that if it attacks Americans or American assets, then Iranian targets “will be hit very fast and very hard.” In a series of tweets, the president said that his message should “serve as a warning,” adding: “The USA wants no more threats!” His message came after series of Iranian threats of retaliation following the killing of Qasem Soleimani on Thursday. “Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American and badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,” Trump tweeted. “He was already attacking our Embassy and preparing for additional hits in other locations.” “Iran has been nothing but problems for many years,” the president continued. “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.” Meanwhile, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said in a tweet that “Iranian-owned Kata’ib Hizballah thugs” are telling Iraqi security forces to abandon their duty to protect the US Embassy in Baghdad, as well as other locations, “where Americans work side by side with good Iraqi people.” “The Iranian regime telling Iraq’s government what to do puts Iraqi patriots’ lives at risk,” Pompeo added. “The Iraqi people want out from under the Iranian yoke; indeed, they recently burned an Iranian consulate to the ground.”
The White House sent to Congress on Saturday formal notification of Friday’s US drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. The classified notification was sent under a 1973 US law called the War Powers Act, which requires the administration to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action or imminent actions.
“This document prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the Administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.
She said the “highly unusual” decision to classify the entire document compounded her concerns and “suggests that the Congress and the American people are being left in the dark about our national security.”
A senior Democratic aide described the notification as “brief and insufficient.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
Source
Comments are closed.