Trump threatens ‘official end of Iran’ if it seeks fight with US

Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In a tweet posted Sunday evening, US President Donald Trump threatened the “official end of Iran” if Tehran threatens or seeks conflict with the US. 

“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” he tweeted.


The inflammatory tweet comes just hours after a Katyusha rocket struck the Baghdad Green Zone near the US Embassy. There were no casualties.

The incident comes days after the US ordered the withdrawal of non-emergency personnel from Iraq and warned its nationals about the risk of violence or kidnapping because of an “imminent” threat that is directly tied to Iran and Iranian-backed groups.

Trump was interviewed about Iran broadcast by Fox News on Sunday. It aired after the Green Zone explosion, but appeared to be pre-filmed.

"I want to invade if I have to economically. We've created a much stronger country economically, then when I took it over... We have tremendous power economically, if I can solve things economically, then that's the way I want to do it,” he said. 

He said Iran clearly has “a military industrial complex. They do like war.”

So even with the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS), Trump expects attacks to continue by extremists. 

"That doesn't mean you aren't going to have these crazy people blowing up stores and things. These are seriously ill people,” he said.

Trump implored that his 2016 stance on the Middle East hasn’t changed and if it weren’t for certain actors in Washington, he would pull forces out: “No, I don't want a fight [with Iran].”
 
"[The Middle East] is a rough place, it's a bad place — a lot of bad things happen. The World Trade Center bombers were kind of trained [inaudible]. That's like the Harvard University of terrorism. If you want to be a terrorist, you go over there,” he claimed.

The State Department also increased its travel advisory to the most extreme level, telling people not to travel to Iraq because of the risk or “terrorism, kidnapping, and armed conflict,” on Wednesday.

Hundreds of US citizens live in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and some 5,000 American troops are stationed at Iraqi bases at the invitation of Baghdad.

No group has claimed the attack.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that Tehran will refuse aggressive attempts by foreign powers to force a change in its posture.  

“We are in favour of dialogue and logic but the claims of a side that says it would drag us to the negotiating table are empty,” Rouhani told a gathering of artists and culture experts in Tehran. “We are not prepared to go ahead with such a negotiation even if all the powers of the world stand against us.” 

Rouhani extolled the virtues of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA) which has been under attack by hardliners in Iran. He stated if it was not for the landmark deal, Iran would not be self-sufficient in production of petrol, a claim that had also been made by Iran's oil minister in February.

“Because of this agreement, huge investments were made in the country and massive projects were inaugurated, for instance the Persian Gulf Star Refinery because of which we became self-sufficient in benzene,” Rouhani responded to the critics. “It was JCPOA that sets the conditions for the competition of Persian Gulf Star, the project has begun before JCPOA but why was it not inaugurated?”


Update: 8:05 a.m., May 20