U.S. ready to strike Iran in a disproportionate manner, Trump warns
President Donald Trump of the United States has said that the United States is ready to strike back Iran ‘perhaps in a disproportionate manner.’
President Donald Trump made this known in a tweet on Sunday putting the United States Congress on notice said: ‘These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S.
These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2020
Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi had said: ‘We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God
Abutorabi went on to say that ‘this is a declaration of war, which means if you hesitate you lose’.
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‘When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head,’ he added.
Recalled that U.S. President Donald Trump had
Showing no signs of seeking to ease tensions raised by the strike he ordered that killed Soleimani and Iranian-backed Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad airport on Friday, Trump issued a threat to Iran on Twitter. The strike has raised the specter of wider conflict in the Middle East.
Iran, Trump wrote, “is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets” in revenge for Soleimani’s death. Trump said the United States has “targeted 52 Iranian sites” and that some were “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.”
“The USA wants no more threats!” Trump said, adding that the 52 targets represented the 52 Americans who were held hostage in Iran for 444 days after being seized at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 – an enduring sore spot in U.S.-Iranian relations.
Trump did not identify the sites. The Pentagon referred questions about the matter to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
California authorities have ramped up security after a U.S. airstrike killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.
Mark Ghilarducci, California Homeland Security Advisor and Director of Emergency Services made this known in statement on Saturday.
Ghilarducci added that the state’s office of emergency services maintained strong relationships with security and intelligence departments around the country and the world, and was continually monitoring the situation.
“At the same time, the California Cybersecurity Integration Center is working closely with its partner networks to prevent, protect against and mitigate possible cyber-attacks,” Ghilarducci said in the `Statement on State Threat Assessments’.
While agreeing that the assassination approved by the White House created a sense of unease, the security advisor said that there were currently no specific threats against the Golden State as a result of the events in the Middle East.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on Friday also beefed up security and urged local residents to report suspicious activity to local law enforcement.
“While there is no credible threat to Los Angeles, the LAPD is monitoring the events developing in Iran.
“We will continue to communicate with state, local, federal and international law enforcement partners regarding any significant intelligence that may develop,” the LAPD tweeted
Thousands of Iraqis, including senior politicians, attended the funeral of a top Iranian general and Iraqi militiamen in Baghdad on Saturday, following a U.S. airstrike that sharply escalated tensions across the region.
The attack near Baghdad airport killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the deputy head of Iraq’s Muslim Shiite militia Hashd al-Shaabi, along with six other Iran-allied militiamen.
A crowd of people stretching over 30 kilometers, or almost 20 miles, poured out onto the streets of Ahvaz, Iran on Sunday to mourn the death of General Suleimanihttps://t.co/tZUy6zGp1h pic.twitter.com/4Wpl1NfUxc
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 5, 2020
On Saturday, the bodies of those killed in the strike were carried inside caskets onto military vehicles in a funeral procession led by Iraqi militiamen holding the Iraqi flag and banners of militias backed by Iran.
Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdel-Mahdi, and Hadi al-Amiri, a senior leader in Hashd al-Shaabi, were in attendance.
Angry mourners chanted anti-U.S. slogans such as “Death to America!” and called for revenge.
Others raised placards reading: “We all are Soleimani and al-Mohandes.”
Iraqi army helicopters flew overhead as part of tight security. Authorities had deployed hundreds of security personnel and closed main streets in the capital for the funeral, witnesses said.
The bodies are to be flown later Saturday to the holy Shiite provinces of Karbala and Najaf in southern Iraq for similar funeral processions, according to Iraqi media.
Afterwards, the slain Iraqi militiamen are to be buried in a major Shiite cemetery in Najaf, while the body of Soleimani will be flown to Iran for burial in his hometown, the reports said.
Soleimani was considered one of Iran’s most influential military leaders, wielding influence in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the Middle East where Iran has a foothold.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened the U.S. with “harsh retaliation” for his killing, while U.S. President Donald Trump defended his decision to order the deadly strike by saying he had taken action “to stop a war.”
Iraqi President Barhan Salih on Saturday called for regional and international cooperation to defuse tensions, state news agency INA said.
He made his appeal during a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The Turkish president confirmed his interest in Iraq’s stability, unity, sovereignty, and independence and preventing Iraq from turning into an arena for regional and international conflicts,” Salih’s office said in a statement.
The U.S. nonetheless braced for retaliation, as Washington called on American citizens to depart Iraq “immediately.”
On Saturday, Britain also warned its citizens against travel to Iraq or Iran.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated since Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reinstated U.S. sanctions in what his administration calls a “maximum pressure campaign.
The Iraqi army on Saturday denied a report by Hashd al-Shaabi that an unidentified airstrike had targeted overnight a group of medics affiliated with the powerful militia in the area of Taji, north of Baghdad.
“The Joint Operations Command denies reports circulated by some media about such an air raid,” the army said in a statement, carried by Iraq’s official news agency.
The U.S.-led military coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq meanwhile said in a tweet it had not conducted airstrikes in Taji.
