US President Donald Trump has asked Iran “never tothreaten” the US and warned Tehran that if it wants a fight, it would be”the official end” of the Islamic nation.
“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official endof Iran,” Trump tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
“Never threaten the United States again!”
His Sunday tweets appeared to be a considerable shift intone from the President’s brief remarks at the White House on May 16, when heresponded “I hope not” after being asked whether the US and Iran wereheaded toward war, The Washington Post reported.
The White House has not officially responded to Trump’stweets.
Trump issued his threat a few hours after the commander ofIran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said on Sunday that Iran does notfear a war but the US does, reports Efe news.
Salami said in a speech at a military ceremony broadcast onstate-run Iranian TV that Tehran was not seeking war but did not fear iteither, in contrast to the US, which is afraid of war and does not have thewillpower to engage in one.
He also warned that the entire Middle East could become”a powder keg” for Washington.
Last week, the US decided to deploy to the Persian Gulf theamphibious assault ship USS Arlington, Patriot missiles, the aircraft carrierUSS Abraham Lincoln and assorted warplanes, including bombers, after claimingthat it had detected unspecified “indications” of Iranian plans toattack US forces in the Middle East.
In recent weeks, concern has been increasing that NationalSecurity Adviser John Bolton, a long-time hawk on Iran who was instrumental ininstigating the invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush, might be working to edgethe administration closer to some kind of military action against Tehran.
Last year, prior to bringing Bolton into the administrationas one of his top advisers, Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal.More recently, Trump has tightened economic sanctions against the Tehran regimeand his administration says it has built up the US military presence in theregion.