In the wake of the killing of a top Iranian general, President Donald Trump has warned Tehran that the US will target 52 Iranian sites if Iran attacks Americans.
“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any American, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago),” Mr Trump tweeted Saturday.
He described some of those targets as being “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.”
The purported targets, Trump added, “WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
Top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad in what the Pentagon called a “defensive action.”
The strike was ordered by Trump, who justified the move by saying that Soleimani “was plotting to kill many more” Americans.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has threatened the US with “harsh retaliation” for the strike near Baghdad airport that killed Soleimani late Thursday or early Friday.
Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani said his country would “avenge” the killing.
In mentioning 52 hostages in his tweet, Trump was apparently referring to the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran by radical Iranian students in November 1979 during Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
They took 52 US embassy officials hostage and demanded the extradition of Iran’s Shah Reza Pahlavi.
Washington imposed sanctions and the hostage-taking ended after 444 days.
Meanwhile, Geman Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said he wants to seek talks with both Iran and key international partners to ease tensions following the US airstrike which killed Soleimani.
“In the coming days, we will do all we can to work against a further escalation of the situation — at the United Nations, in the EU, and in a dialogue with our partners in the region, including talks with Iran,” Maas told the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
Iran has vowed revenge in the wake of the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Maas said the situation had become “more unpredictable.”
“Everyone must be aware that any provocation could now lead to an uncontrollable spiral of violence, with unforeseeable consequences for the entire region and also for our security in Europe,” the German official asserted.
Maas also mentioned three goals. “First: avoid a war-like escalation. Second: preserve Iraq’s stability and integrity and third: make sure that ISIS (the terrorist militia Islamic State) does not gain ground again in the slipstream of these upheavals.”
According to Maas, there is currently no acute danger for German tourists in the Gulf region: “So far, there have been no concrete threats against Germans in the main travel areas there,” he said. “But the situation in the region has become more volatile.”
NATO to hold emergency meeting
In the wake of the assassination of a top Iranian general, Ghassem Soleimani by the United State and the rising tension in the region, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has called for an urgent meeting of the military alliance’s North Atlantic Council on Monday.
The ambassador-level meeting of the alliance’s main decision-making body is expected to address the situation in Iraq after the killing of Iranian top general Ghassem Soleimani by the US military.
The ambassadors of the North Atlantic Council usually meet once a week, while its foreign and defence ministers meet around twice a year.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday.
