Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani has pushed back against US President Donald Trump's recent threat that any response to an Iranian attack “will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude”.
In a post on Twitter on Wednesday, the security chief pledged that forces mulling military adventurism against Iran will be "sent to the cemetery", reminding Washington about the Islamic Republic's effective defence against Iraq's invasion of the country in the 1980s.
#HolyDefense Week is a historical document for the will of Martyr #Soleimani's generation to punish illusory dictators who think they are 1000 times more powerful than #Iran. Those whose hands are stained with Iranian's blood will be sent to the cemetery like Saddam. #HardRevenge
— علی شمخانی (@alishamkhani_ir) September 16, 2020
Donald Trump had tweeted his threat on 14 September after reports cited unnamed American officials as claiming that Iran was hatching plans to assassinate US Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks in retaliation for the January assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
According to press reports, Iran may be planning an assassination, or other attack, against the United States in retaliation for the killing of terrorist leader Soleimani, which was carried out for his planning a future attack, murdering U.S. Troops, and the death & suffering...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2020
Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a Washington-ordered drone strike along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi, and their companions, as their vehicle was targeted outside Baghdad International Airport on 3 January.
The US maintained that the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had been planning numerous attacks against American personnel and infrastructure in the region, although no evidence of the alleged attack plans was presented.
Earlier, a US media report alleged that Tehran was considering the covert operation in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani ahead of the presidential election in the United States in November.
Donald Trump’s threat was slammed as “a baseless allegation” against Tehran by the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations in letters to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and President of the Security Council Abdou Abarry.
“Such a provocative statement constitutes a gross violation of the very fundamental principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly its Article 2(4) that clearly prohibits the threat or use of force,” Majid Takht Ravanchi wrote.
The Iranian envoy reminded the UN that Trump had issued a number of threats targeting Iran following the assassination of General Soleimani.
Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei similarly cautioned the United States against making another “strategic mistake”.
“We hope that they do not make a new strategic mistake. In that case, they will face our resistance,” Rabiei said at a Tuesday news conference.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier suggested that Donald Trump was being “deceived” by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who sought to “sucker him into the mother of all quagmires by leaking a new false alarm”.
