Iran warned the US on Tuesday against making a “strategic mistake” afterPresident Donald Trump threatened Tehran over reports it planned to avengethe killing of top general Qasem Soleimani.
“We hope that they do not make a new strategic mistake and certainly in thecase of any strategic mistake, they will witness Iran’s decisive response,”Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a televised news conference.
Trump vowed on Monday that any attack by Iran would be met with a response”1,000 times greater in magnitude,” after reports that Iran planned toavenge the killing of top general Qasem Soleimani.
A US media report, quoting unnamed officials, said that an alleged Iranianplot to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa was planned ahead ofthe US 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!”
Rabiei expressed regret that “the president of a country who has claims toglobal management and order would make hasty, agenda-fuelled and dubiousremarks on such a weak basis.”
He warned that reacting to such reports would “achieve nothing butdisruption to the region and to world calm” and advised Trump to “refrainfrom fresh adventurism… for the sake of winning a new term as president.”
– Iran denies plot –
On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry denied the report of an assassinationplot as “baseless” and part of “repetitive and rotten methods to create ananti-Iranian atmosphere”.
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Relations between Washington and Tehran have been tense ever since theIslamic revolution of 1979.
They have deteriorated sharply since Trump unilaterally pulled out of alandmark international nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018 and reimposedcrippling sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday declined to comment directly onthe reported threat to Lana Marks, the US ambassador to South Africa, whois a close ally of Trump.
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 navy last week said it drove off US aircraft that flew close toan area where naval exercises were underway near the Strait of Hormuz.
The military said three US aircraft were detected by air defences.
One of them was a US RQ-4 drone, the same model as one shot down by Iran inJune last year after allegedly violating Iranian airspace — a claim the UShas denied. -APP/AFP
