Senin, 06 Januari 2020

Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates - The New York Times

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Credit...Office of Iran's Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where the military commander was hailed as a martyr, his successor swore revenge and teeming crowds chanted, “Death to America."

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassan Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran’s government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal, limiting its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” Iran said in a statement. “Therefore Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion.”

The announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully. The European parties to the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, as well and China and Russia, also signatories to the deal, had struggled to preserve the agreement amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s statement Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Iraqi lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling American troops from their country.

The vote was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support.

The drone strike that killed General Suleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.

The attack was viewed in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Parliament was divided over demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Many of its 328 members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

Iranian officials reacted to the vote with congratulatory messages and said General Suleimani’s death had delivered a huge victory over the United States.

Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to President Rouhani, in a Twitter post, said: “Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security. America and Israel are the only winners of a rift between neighbors.”

Asked about the vote on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would continue to battle the Islamic State. “It is the United States that is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what it is they deserve and continue our mission there to take down terrorism from ISIS and others in the region,” he said in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Alissa J. Rubin, Ben Hubbard, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, Edward Wong, Tess Felder, Yonette Joseph, Mariel Padilla and Maggie Haberman.

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2020-01-06 09:58:00Z
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Successor to Slain Iranian General Vows Revenge: Live Updates - The New York Times

Image
Credit...Office of Iran's Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in Tehran, the Iranian capital, where the military commander was hailed as a martyr, his successor swore revenge and teeming crowds chanted, “Death to America."

“God the almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger,” vowed Esmail Ghaani, the Iranian general who will take over the Quds Force, the foreign expeditionary arm of Iran’s elite paramilitary organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Certainly actions will be taken,” he added.

General Suleimani was killed by the United States on Friday in Baghdad in a drone strike. American officials said the general had ordered assaults on Americans in Iraq and Syria and was planning a wave of imminent attacks.

His killing has set off fears of escalating retaliatory actions by Iran and the United States, and of a broader regional conflict. In the aftermath of the attack, Iran said it would no longer abide by a 2015 agreement to suspend uranium production.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, wept openly at the funeral while offering prayers over the general’s coffin. Ayatollah Khamenei had a close relationship with the general, who was widely considered to be the second most powerful man in Iran.

General Suleimani’s daughter, Zeinab Suleimani, said in a eulogy that the United States and Israel faced a “dark day.”

“You crazy Trump, the symbol of ignorance, the slave of Zionists, don’t think that the killing of my father will finish everything,” she said at the funeral.

The general’s funeral was attended by a broad swath of Iranians, including reformers who oppose the government of President Hassani Rouhani but who perceived the killing as an attack on all of Iran.

“I felt like he was our safety umbrella spread above Iran,” said Amir Ali, 22, a university student. “I felt safe knowing he was out there.”

President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threats to attack Iranian cultural sites and warned of a “major retaliation” if the Iranian government planned tit-for-tat attacks in the aftermath of the killing of a senior military commander.

Mr. Trump defended the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump said in a tweet that the United States had selected 52 Iranian sites, some “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” to attack in the event of Iranian retaliation.

That prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to say that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime.”

But on Sunday evening, aboard Air Force One on his way back from his holiday trip to Florida, Mr. Trump did not back down.

“They’re allowed to kill our people,” he said to reporters. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

Iran’s government said it would no longer abide by a commitment it made under a 2015 nuclear deal, limiting its enrichment of uranium.

The decision to lift all restrictions on the production of nuclear fuel spelled the effective end of the nuclear deal, experts said, though Iran left open the possibility that it would return to the limits if sanctions were lifted.

“It’s finished. If there’s no limitation on production, then there is no deal,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit in Washington.

The announcement came after Iran’s National Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the country’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of General Suleimani’s assassination.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will end its final limitations in the nuclear deal, meaning the limitation in the number of centrifuges,” Iran said in a statement. “Therefore Iran’s nuclear program will have no limitations in production including enrichment capacity and percentage and number of enriched uranium and research and expansion.”

The announcement followed several steps by Iran to move away from the terms of the agreement, nearly two years after Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal. Since that renunciation, the Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy.

The nuclear agreement ended some economic sanctions on Iran in return for its verifiable pledge to use nuclear power peacefully. The European parties to the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, had struggled to preserve the agreement amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Iran’s statement Sunday did not include details about its enrichment ambitions. And the country did not say it was expelling the inspectors who monitor its nuclear program.

Oil prices surged and stock markets in Asia fell on Monday morning, as the impact of General Suleimani’s death ricocheted around the world.

The price of Brent oil, the international benchmark, jumped above $70 in futures trading as markets digested a steady flow of news over the weekend.

The sudden escalation in tensions in a region that supplies much of the world’s petroleum has roiled oil markets. The West Texas Intermediate, the American oil benchmark, rose 1.9 percent to $64.22 a barrel in futures trading.

Analysts at Capital Economics have warned that the price of oil could spike to $150 a barrel if the bellicose rhetoric between the two countries turned into action.

“The price of oil would soar in the event of full-blown military conflict in the Middle East,” said Alexander Kozul-Wright, a commodities economist at Capital Economics.

Chinese state-controlled news media on Monday condemned the United States for the killing of General Suleimani, amplifying China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, who warned of a “vicious cycle of confrontation” between the United States and Iran.

“Solving the conflicts between the United States and Iran can’t be achieved through military strikes or extreme pressure,” People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said in an editorial. The editorial appeared under the pen name “Zhong Sheng,” which is widely used to offer the paper’s views on foreign affairs.

The editorial likened the latest crisis to the United States-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 and Western intervention in Libya in 2011.

“The facts prove time and again that unilateral resorts to armed force will not solve problems,” the paper said. “Instead the outcome will be the opposite, leading to a cycle of confrontation that will be difficult to clean up.”

China has been reducing its imports of oil from Iran as United States sanctions have deepened, but it remains heavily dependent on crude from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. Beijing has also tried to shore up the international agreement that curtailed Iran’s nuclear development.

On Sunday, the Chinese embassy in Washington warned Chinese citizens to be extra careful about their safety in the wake of the crisis with Iran.

Fears of worldwide conflict were shared across social media over the weekend, but Xinhua, China’s main official news agency, published a commentary saying that outright war between the United States and Iran still seemed unlikely.

“Faced with the 2020 election, Trump has deliberately used attacking Iran to shift the focus from domestic tensions and add to his electoral chips,” read the commentary, “but he has no intention of launching a war.”

Iraqi lawmakers voted 170-0 on Sunday in favor of expelling American troops from their country.

The vote was not final and many lawmakers did not attend the session. But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi drafted the language and submitted the bill to Parliament, leaving little doubt about his support.

The drone strike that killed General Suleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias.

The attack was viewed in Iraq as a violation of the nation’s sovereignty, and the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it had summoned the American ambassador in Baghdad.

Iraq’s Parliament was divided over demands from angry citizens to expel American troops. Many of its 328 members, primarily Kurds and Sunnis, did not attend Sunday’s session and did not vote. In his speech to lawmakers, Mr. Mahdi laid out two possibilities: to either quickly end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, or to set a timeline for their expulsion.

The measure approved by Parliament did not include a timeline, and only instructed the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq. Officials said no decision had been made about whether any American troops would be able to stay, or under what conditions.

Iranian officials reacted to the vote with congratulatory messages and said General Suleimani’s death had delivered a huge victory over the United States.

Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to President Rouhani, in a Twitter post, said: “Expanding friendship with our neighbors and domestic unity are the best gifts for protecting our national security. America and Israel are the only winners of a rift between neighbors.”

Asked about the vote on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States would continue to battle the Islamic State. “It is the United States that is prepared to help the Iraqi people get what it is they deserve and continue our mission there to take down terrorism from ISIS and others in the region,” he said in an interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Russell Goldman, Alexandra Stevenson, Farnaz Fassihi, Christopher Buckley, Alissa J. Rubin, Ben Hubbard, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, David D. Kirkpatrick, Edward Wong, Tess Felder, Yonette Joseph, Mariel Padilla and Maggie Haberman.

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2020-01-06 09:02:00Z
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Uproar and consequences mount for Trump after Soleimani killing - CNN

President Donald Trump's claim that the drone strike last week made Americans safer is being challenging by cascading events that appear to leave the US more vulnerable and isolated.
The administration's basis for the attack also came under renewed suspicion after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN that it was not "relevant" for him to reveal how imminent the attacks on US interests were that Trump said Soleimani was planning.
In proliferating signs of the deepening crisis, Iran on Sunday announced that it was shaking off restrictions on its uranium enrichment under the Obama-era nuclear deal. Iraq's parliament voted to expel US troops. A US exit could imperil its fight against extremism and consolidate Iranian influence in Baghdad. Dissent emerged inside the administration over the President's vow to strike cultural sites — or civilian targets — if Iran mounts reprisal strikes. Administration claims that the elimination of Soleimani, Iran's Middle East terror chief, sparked celebration in Iran were confounded by Tehran's orchestrating of Soleimani's funeral rites to launch a propaganda campaign to heal national divides.
Skepticism mounts over evidence of 'imminent' threat that Trump says justified Soleimani killing
Washington's European allies, meanwhile, distanced themselves from Trump's assault. The US-led ISIS coalition temporarily stopped action against the terror group to protect Iraqi bases from Iranian-backed militias. And in a new sign of widening gaps between Iraq and the US, Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said he had been scheduled to meet Soleimani on the day he was killed to discuss an initiative to ease Iran-Saudi tensions.
In Kenya, three Americans were killed in an attack on a military base by Al-Shabaab, a jihadist group. The group follows a Sunni strand of Islam while Iran has a Shiite Muslim majority and there was no immediate link to the killing of Soleimani. But the attack was a reminder of both the vulnerability of US personnel to terror attacks and a sign that other US adversaries might try to take advantage of the tumult for their own ends.
The growing international tumult was matched by a worsening confrontation at home with Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans becoming even more estranged over the President's impeachment trial, a drama that was triggered by Trump's handling of another foreign policy issue -- Ukraine -- and his efforts to use his power to coerce political dirt on his domestic opponents.

Trump strategy under scrutiny

The deepening fallout over Iran renewed a focus on Trump's leadership style and the question of how carefully he had considered the consequences of the attack.
The administration is resisting giving a public accounting of the intelligence that led it to attack Soleimani. Democrats in Congress have said they were not consulted in advance and that the White House has only offered a classified explanation of its action.
There is also no obvious sign of a long-term strategy to head off Iranian reprisals — apart from Trump's increasingly belligerent tweets.
"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," Trump wrote Sunday.
'You're not a dictator': Democrats criticize Trump tweet on notifying Congress about Iran military action
But there was dismay within the administration over Trump's earlier threat to attack "cultural" sites in Iran if the Tehran regime went after Americans to avenge Soleimani. An attack on cultural sites like a religious or historic monument might endanger civilians and could violate several international treaties and would likely be considered a war crime.
"Nothing rallies people like the deliberate destruction of beloved cultural sites," one official told CNN's Jim Sciutto.
But Trump reiterated his threat to reporters on Air Force One as he flew back to Washington from his vacation in Florida.
"They're allowed to kill our people, they're allowed to torture and maim our people, they're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people, and we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way," the President said according to a pool report.
Trump also threatened to impose stringent sanctions on Iraq if US troops were forced to leave.
Pompeo, appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," insisted that Soleimani's demise made the world safer — despite the US telling its citizens to leave Iraq.
Trump reiterates threat to target Iranian cultural sites
"The Middle East was unstable. We are creating a place and an opportunity for that stability," Pompeo said.
"I know that the risk to America over the long run is much reduced as a result to the actions President Trump and our administration has taken in these last three years," he said.
The Secretary of State also improbably claimed that the Obama administration "kicked off" a war with Iran with its deal that froze Iran's enrichment activity and halted what the US says was a march towards a nuclear bomb.
"It told the Iranians that they had free rein to develop a Shia crescent that extended from Yemen to Iraq to Syria and into Lebanon, surrounding our ally Israel, and threatening American lives as well," Pompeo said. The Trump administration argues that the nuclear deal was too limited and didn't curtail Iran's support for extremist groups in the Middle East or the threat from the Islamic Republic's missile program.
Critics warned that while Soleimani was a malignant force, as wrangler of Iran's terrorist proxies, and was responsible for advanced weaponry that killed hundreds of US soldiers in Iraq, the costs of killing him may outweigh the benefits.
"I don't know what the President's motivation here is but I think it was a reckless decision that increased the risk to Americans all around the world, not decreased it," House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff told CNN.
Late Sunday evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would introduce a "War Powers Resolution to limit the President's military actions regarding Iran," saying Congress' first responsibility is to "keep the American people safe."
"Last week, the Trump Administration conducted a provocative and disproportionate military airstrike targeting high-level Iranian military officials. This action endangered our servicemembers, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran," Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Democrats announcing the resolution.
But one of Trump's top congressional allies, Sen Lindsey Graham, R-SC, backed the strike, calling Iran the "cancer of the Middle East" in an interview of Fox News.
The administration insists it does not want war with Iran. But its claims it is not seeking regime change were undermined by its elimination of Soleimani — the most powerful Iranian leader barring Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The fear now is that a military response to Soleimani's killing by Iran will set off a cycle of escalation that could lead to the two sides to the cusp of a disastrous war.

Iran crisis abroad, impeachment imbroglio at home

The events of the past few days have seemed inevitable given the hardline Trump policy toward Iran, and the lack of a realistic diplomatic off ramp that might ease tensions.
When Trump took office, Iran's uranium enrichment program was frozen. The President's decision to ditch the nuclear deal and "maximum pressure" campaign brought Iran's economy to its knees. Far from halting what the US says is Tehran's malicious regional activity, the policy seems to have exacerbated it, leading to Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a Saudi oil refinery and a militia strike that killed an American contractor in Iraq and prompted Trump to take down Soleimani.
The showdown with Iran is deepening as another crisis caused by Trump's disruptive choices — his impeachment over his demand for political favors from Ukraine — tests national unity at home.
Recent days have seen a widening dispute between the House and the Senate over the shape of Trump's impeachment trial and damaging new revelations strengthening the case that the President abused his power.
Impeachment uncertainty clouds Trump's legal defense plans
Both crises reflect the trends that drive the Trump presidency -- including questionable administration standards of trust, transparency and truth, a hyper-political approach to foreign policy and the impulsive personality of an commander-in-chief who acts on instinct and accepts few limits on his power.
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Sunday questioned the timing of the attack on Soleimani.
Asked on "State of the Union" whether she believes Trump is trying to distract from his impeachment in Congress, Warren responded: "I think it is a reasonable question to ask particularly when the administration immediately after having taken this decision offers a bunch of contradictory explanations for what is going on."
One of Warren's rivals for the Democratic nomination, former vice president Joe Biden, warned that the President's tweets and threats reflect his unsuitability to be commander-in-chief. And he said he was the most suitable candidate to replace him.
"We need to provide a steady, stable, experienced leadership. With all due respect, I think I'm best prepared than of anybody running for president right now," Biden said at an event in Des Moines, Iowa.
His comments showed how the sudden escalation of the crisis with Iran, along with tensions that are unlikely to quickly ebb, could emerge as a major issue in the Democratic primary race and provide an opening for the party's eventual presidential nominee.

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2020-01-06 07:28:00Z
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Minggu, 05 Januari 2020

Exclusive: Iran's response to US will be military -- Khamenei's adviser - CNN

In an exclusive interview with CNN in Tehran, the adviser -- Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan -- made the most specific and direct threat yet by a senior Iranian official following the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Dehghan said Iran would retaliate directly against US "military sites."
Pompeo backs Trump's threats to Iran as US braces for possible retaliation
Dehghan is a former defense minister and is now the main military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He told CNN that reprisals would come from Iran itself, not its allied militia in the region.
"It might be argued that there could be proxy operations. We can say America, Mr. Trump, has taken action directly against us -- so we take direct action against America."
The United States has a growing military presence in the region. Thousands of US troops have been deployed to Saudi Arabia, and there are some 5,000 at bases in Iraq. The US also has a major air base in Qatar and a naval presence in Bahrain, as well as troops stationed in Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
In common with other Iranian officials, Dehghan suggested that Iran was in no hurry to retaliate and would choose its targets carefully. "Our reaction will be wise, well considered and in time, with decisive deterrent effect."
How Trump's decision unfolded to kill a top Iranian general
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani had earlier said that Americans would face consequences for killing Soleimani "not only today, but also in the coming years."
Given the rhetoric of both sides, there is a growing risk of escalation in what has become the most dangerous confrontation between the US and Iran in decades.
Late Saturday, President Donald Trump tweeted that "If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way...and without hesitation!"
The President continued: "They attacked us, & we hit back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!"
Dehghan responded defiantly to Trump's warning.
"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions," he said.
"The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle."
In recent months, officials in the Trump administration and even the President himself have floated the possibility of renewed dialogue with Iran. Dehghan dismissed that possibility.
"Look, for several reasons we didn't want to negotiate with this incumbent US administration. Now, after what happened to Mr. Soleimani there is no point for negotiations or relations. It's impossible."

'Gangster and a gambler'

Dehgahn also responded to Trump's threat to include Iranian cultural sites among 52 targets the US had selected to strike in the event of Iranian retaliation. The number was chosen to match the number of hostages taken in the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, Trump said.
Dehghan said the tweets were ridiculous and absurd. "If he says 52 we say 300 -- and they are accessible to us," Dehghan said. "No American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe.
"He doesn't know international law. He doesn't recognize UN resolutions either. Basically he is a veritable gangster and a gambler."
Trump and Rouhani trade warnings after killing of top general
At one point in the interview, Dehghan pulled out a picture of Soleimani and held it up to the camera.
"All Iranians are Qasem Soleimani," he said, and insisted the Quds force, which Soleimani had led since 2003, would not be weakened by his death. The Quds have been responsible for projecting Iranian influence across the Middle East and beyond and have played a major role in supporting the Assad regime in Syria.
"The person who has replaced him has been cooperating with him for two decades. He has the same manner and method," Dehghan said.
Iran's will to defend its interests "has increased a thousand times. We don't feel anything. We have a logic, the logic of martyrdom."
As the war of words escalates, Dehghan echoed the comments of other senior Iranian officials that the country was not seeking war.
"Let me tell you one thing: Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war."
But his demand that the US not respond to any reprisals by Iran for Soleimani's killing will surely fall on deaf ears. This cycle of violence accelerated when a US contractor was killed in a rocket attack on a joint US-Iraqi military base on December 29th.
US officials held a pro-Iranian militia responsible for the attack. Its leader was killed along with Soleimani in the US drone strike in Baghdad.

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2020-01-05 14:44:00Z
52780536809258

Exclusive: Supreme Leader's military adviser says Iran's response will be 'against military sites' - CNN

In an exclusive interview with CNN in Tehran, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: "The response for sure will be military and against military sites."
Dehghan, a former defense minister, is the main military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is very close to the Supreme Leader.
"Let me tell you one thing: Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war," Dehghan said.
How Trump's decision unfolded to kill a top Iranian general
"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday the United States committed a "grave mistake" in killing Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and US President Donald Trump responded on Twitter, writing that if Tehran attacks American assets, the US will strike "very hard and very fast."
The US has a list of 52 Iranian targets, Trump tweeted. The number was chosen to match the number of hostages taken in the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, he said.
Dehghan described the tweets as "ridiculous and absurd."
"[Trump] doesn't know international law. He doesn't recognize UN resolutions either. Basically he is a veritable gangster and a gambler. He is no politician he has no mental stability," Dehghan said.
Making reference to United National resolution 2347 which condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, Dehghan said "if [Trump] wants to imposed rule, logic and rationality over his decision he should accept that he is a war criminal and must be tried in a relevant court."
Asked what would happen if Trump were to carry out his threat to strike any of Iran's cultural sites, Dehghan said "for sure no American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe. And they are accessible to us."

Major escalation

Rouhani said earlier Americans would face consequences for killing Soleimani "not only today, but also in the coming years."
Rouhani's remarks came on the same day mourners in neighboring Iraq had chanted "Death to America" at a funeral procession for Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader who died with him in a US airstrike in Iraq early Friday.
The strike killed Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. At least six people were killed in the strike, an Iraqi security source told CNN on condition of anonymity.
Dems question order to kill Iranian military leader. Trump hasn't publicly explained his reasoning
It marks a major escalation in regional tensions that have pitted Tehran against Washington and its allies in the Middle East.
Trump on Friday said he ordered the death of Soleimani, one of Iran's most powerful men, to stop a war, not start one, as tensions between the two nations were already escalating.
Trump said Soleimani was plotting "imminent and sinister attacks" on Americans.
The Pentagon blamed Soleimani and Iran-backed Iraqi militias for recent assaults on coalition bases in Iraq, including a December 27 strike that killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several US and Iraqi military personnel.
After retaliatory US airstrikes against the militias last month, hundreds of protesters stormed the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on December 31, an attack the US blamed on Soleimani.
Soleimani was the head of Quds Force, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit in charge of foreign operations, and he became the architect of Tehran's proxy conflicts in the Middle East. The Pentagon blamed Soleimani for hundreds of deaths of Americans and their allies over the years.

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2020-01-05 13:24:00Z
52780536809258

Exclusive: Supreme Leader's military adviser says Iran's response will be 'against military sites' - CNN

In an exclusive interview with CNN in Tehran, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: "The response for sure will be military and against military sites."
Dehghan, a former defense minister, is the main military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is very close to the Supreme Leader.
"Let me tell you one thing: Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war," Dehghan said.
How Trump's decision unfolded to kill a top Iranian general
"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday the United States committed a "grave mistake" in killing Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and US President Donald Trump responded on Twitter, writing that if Tehran attacks American assets, the US will strike "very hard and very fast."
The US has a list of 52 Iranian targets, Trump tweeted. The number was chosen to match the number of hostages taken in the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, he said.
Dehghan described the tweets as "ridiculous and absurd."
"[Trump] doesn't know international law. He doesn't recognize UN resolutions either. Basically he is a veritable gangster and a gambler. He is no politician he has no mental stability," Dehghan said.
Making reference to United National resolution 2347 which condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, Dehghan said "if [Trump] wants to imposed rule, logic and rationality over his decision he should accept that he is a war criminal and must be tried in a relevant court."
Asked what would happen if Trump were to carry out his threat to strike any of Iran's cultural sites, Dehghan said "for sure no American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe. And they are accessible to us."

Major escalation

Rouhani said earlier Americans would face consequences for killing Soleimani "not only today, but also in the coming years."
Rouhani's remarks came on the same day mourners in neighboring Iraq had chanted "Death to America" at a funeral procession for Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader who died with him in a US airstrike in Iraq early Friday.
The strike killed Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. At least six people were killed in the strike, an Iraqi security source told CNN on condition of anonymity.
Dems question order to kill Iranian military leader. Trump hasn't publicly explained his reasoning
It marks a major escalation in regional tensions that have pitted Tehran against Washington and its allies in the Middle East.
Trump on Friday said he ordered the death of Soleimani, one of Iran's most powerful men, to stop a war, not start one, as tensions between the two nations were already escalating.
Trump said Soleimani was plotting "imminent and sinister attacks" on Americans.
The Pentagon blamed Soleimani and Iran-backed Iraqi militias for recent assaults on coalition bases in Iraq, including a December 27 strike that killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several US and Iraqi military personnel.
After retaliatory US airstrikes against the militias last month, hundreds of protesters stormed the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on December 31, an attack the US blamed on Soleimani.
Soleimani was the head of Quds Force, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit in charge of foreign operations, and he became the architect of Tehran's proxy conflicts in the Middle East. The Pentagon blamed Soleimani for hundreds of deaths of Americans and their allies over the years.

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2020-01-05 12:17:00Z
52780536809258

Exclusive: Supreme Leader's military adviser says Iran's response will be 'against military sites' - CNN

In an exclusive interview with CNN in Tehran, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: "The response for sure will be military and against military sites."
Dehghan, a former defense minister, is the main military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is very close to the Supreme Leader.
"Let me tell you one thing: Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war," Dehghan said.
How Trump's decision unfolded to kill a top Iranian general
"It was America that has started the war. Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday the United States committed a "grave mistake" in killing Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and US President Donald Trump responded on Twitter, writing that if Tehran attacks American assets, the US will strike "very hard and very fast."
The US has a list of 52 Iranian targets, Trump tweeted. The number was chosen to match the number of hostages taken in the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, he said.
Dehghan described the tweets as "ridiculous and absurd."
"[Trump] doesn't know international law. He doesn't recognize UN resolutions either. Basically he is a veritable gangster and a gambler. He is no politician he has no mental stability," Dehghan said.
Making reference to United National resolution 2347 which condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, Dehghan said "if [Trump] wants to imposed rule, logic and rationality over his decision he should accept that he is a war criminal and must be tried in a relevant court."
Asked what would happen if Trump were to carry out his threat to strike any of Iran's cultural sites, Dehghan said "for sure no American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe. And they are accessible to us."

Major escalation

Rouhani said earlier Americans would face consequences for killing Soleimani "not only today, but also in the coming years."
Rouhani's remarks came on the same day mourners in neighboring Iraq had chanted "Death to America" at a funeral procession for Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader who died with him in a US airstrike in Iraq early Friday.
The strike killed Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. At least six people were killed in the strike, an Iraqi security source told CNN on condition of anonymity.
Dems question order to kill Iranian military leader. Trump hasn't publicly explained his reasoning
It marks a major escalation in regional tensions that have pitted Tehran against Washington and its allies in the Middle East.
Trump on Friday said he ordered the death of Soleimani, one of Iran's most powerful men, to stop a war, not start one, as tensions between the two nations were already escalating.
Trump said Soleimani was plotting "imminent and sinister attacks" on Americans.
The Pentagon blamed Soleimani and Iran-backed Iraqi militias for recent assaults on coalition bases in Iraq, including a December 27 strike that killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several US and Iraqi military personnel.
After retaliatory US airstrikes against the militias last month, hundreds of protesters stormed the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on December 31, an attack the US blamed on Soleimani.
Soleimani was the head of Quds Force, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit in charge of foreign operations, and he became the architect of Tehran's proxy conflicts in the Middle East. The Pentagon blamed Soleimani for hundreds of deaths of Americans and their allies over the years.

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2020-01-05 11:44:00Z
52780536809258