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.