Tensions continue to rise as President Donald Trump threatens more attacks on Iranian soil if the Islamic country retaliates for the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top leaders.
The president tweeted that
the United States will attack 52 choice targets in Iran. According to the
world’s most powerful Commander-in-Chief, the number “52” is
symbolic. The number of targets is a perfect match for the number of American
hostages that were held by Iran in 1979. About 52 American citizens and
diplomats were held as hostages in Iran for 444 days.
The American president said
“Let this serve as a warning that if Iran strikes any American assets or
Americans, we have…targeted 52 Iranian sites, some at a very high level and
very important to Iran and the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran
itself, will be hit very fast and very hard.” He further stated that “The USA
wants no more threats!”
Although President Trump’s
tweet was worded in a vague way, the United Nations Security Council have made
it clear that targeting cultural heritage sites is forbidden.
The tweet that bore the
threat message came on Saturday after General Gholamali Abuhamzeh, a senior
Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, was quoted verbatim as saying – late on
Friday – that Iran will punish the Americans wherever they are within reach of
the Islamic Republic. The commander has indeed raised the possibility of
attacks on American ships in the Gulf.
General Abuhamzeh was quoted
as saying “The Strait of Hormuz critical point for the West and a large number
of American warships and destroyers cross there. vital American targets in this
region were identified many years ago…Some 35 United States targets in the
region, as well as Tel Aviv, are within our reach.”
General Soleimani who was a
very influential commander of a secretive military unit known as “Quds Force”
was killed by drone strikes on Friday at the Baghdad airport. The Iranian
President, Hassan Rouhani, later tweeted: “The great nation of Iran will take
revenge for this heinous crime.”
President Trump stated on
Friday that the attack was necessary and initiated to prevent war and further
bloodshed for Americans who were targets that Soleiman had in his sights for
future operations.
According to Trump in a
televised address to the nation “We took action last night to stop a war. We
did not take this action to start a war.”
However, the White House has
failed to provide enough proof to the public to show that Soleimani’s plans
were significantly inappropriate and not in accordance with his history of
directing Iran’s covert operations and proxy wars which have, in truth, cost
American lives.
The White House blamed the
general for the violent protests that occurred at the United States Embassy
earlier last week.
A few congressional leaders
have stated that Americans deserve to see enough proof to show that targeting
Soleimani was justified.
According to two senior
Capitol sources, Congress received formal notification on Saturday about the
attack. Such documentation, which is classified, is required by law.
However, Nancy Pelosi, House
Speaker, D-California stated that the notification was not sufficient enough.
She said the lack of transparency in the Soleimani attack as exhibited by the
White House is a cause for concern.
“The highly unusual decision to classify this important document in its entirety heightens our many concerns, and suggests that the American people and Congress are left in the dark about our national security,” Pelosi stated.
