WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Monday vowed that any attack byIran would be met with a response “1,000 times greater in magnitude,” afterreports that Iran planned to avenge the killing of top general QasemSoleimani.
A US media report, quoting unnamed officials, said that an alleged Iranianplot to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa was planned beforethe presidential election in November.
“According to press reports, Iran may be planning an assassination, orother attack, against the United States in retaliation for the killing ofterrorist leader Soleimani,” Trump tweeted.
“Any attack by Iran, in any form, against the United States will be metwith an attack on Iran that will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude!”
Relations between Washington and Tehran have been tense since the Iranianrevolution, and have spiralled since Trump unilaterally pulled out of alandmark international nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018.
In January, a US drone strike killed Soleimani in Baghdad, and Washingtonis pushing to extend an arms embargo on Iran that starts to progressivelyexpire in October as well as reimposing UN sanctions on the Islamicrepublic.
Iran denies plot
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday declined to comment directly onthe reported threat to Lana Marks, the US ambassador to South Africa who isa close ally of Trump.
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But Pompeo told Fox News that “the Islamic Republic of Iran has engaged inassassination efforts all across the world. They have assassinated peoplein Europe and in other parts of the world. We take these… allegationsseriously.
“We make very clear to the Islamic Republic of Iran that this kind ofactivity — attacking any American any place at any time, whether it’s anAmerican diplomat, an ambassador, or one of our service members — iscompletely unacceptable.”
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman on Monday dismissed the report of anassassination plot as “baseless” and part of “repetitive and rotten methodsto create an anti-Iranian atmosphere on the international stage.”
The Iranian navy last week said it drove off American aircraft that flewclose to an area where military exercises were underway near the Strait ofHormuz.
The military said three US aircraft were detected by Iran’s air forceradars after they entered the country’s air defence identification zone.
In June last year, a US RQ-4 drone was shot down by Iran after allegedlyviolating Iranian airspace — a claim the US has denied. -APP/AFP
