Iran has placed an $80million bounty on Donald Trump’s head and threatened to attack the White House in response to the president’s warning that any strike on American interests in the region will bring massive retaliation.
An organizer for a funeral procession for General Qassem Soleimani called on all Iranians to donate $1 each ‘in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump’s head’.
The organizer made the remarks during the procession in Mashad.
Iran has also announced it they will no longer abide by any of the limits of its 2015 nuclear deal.
A statement issued by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s administration said the country will not observe limitations on its enrichment, the amount of stockpiled enriched uranium as well as research and development in its nuclear activities.
It did not elaborate on what levels it would immediately reach in its program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations watchdog observing Iran’s program, could not be immediately reach for comment.
Earlier on Sunday, the Iraqi parliament voted for US troops to be expelled from the country. The vote will ‘obligate the government to work towards ending the presence of all foreign troops on Iraqi soil,’ the country’s media office stated.
As tensions escalate after Soleimani’s death, Iranian MP Abolfazl Abutorabi threatened to launch an attack on American soil in retaliation.
‘We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time,’ Abutorabi said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.
Abutorabi went on to say that ‘this is a declaration of war, which means if you hesitate you lose’.
‘When someone declares war do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head,’ he added.
Abutorabi’s threat was made during an open session of parliament in Tehran just days after Iranian military Soleimani was killed in a drone strike on Friday at Baghdad airport. Soleimani was the architect of Tehran’s overseas clandestine and military operations as head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.
After Sunday’s funeral marches in Iraq, where thousands of people gathered, Soleimani’s body was flown to the city of Ahvaz in southwest Iran. Video from the scene showed a casket wrapped in an Iranian flag being unloaded from a plane as a military band played and the crowd angrily chanted ‘Death to America’.
On Saturday, Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami promised ‘a strategic revenge which will definitely put an end to the US presence in the region’.
However, Trump, who Iranian leaders branded as a ‘terrorist in a suit’, threatened to hit 52 critical targets in Iran in retaliation if Tehran strikes any American interests in the region. He upped the stakes after Iran said it had identified 35 targets for potential strikes and raised its red ‘flags of revenge’ over a key mosque.
An organizer for a funeral procession for Soleimani reportedly called on all Iranians to donate $1 each ‘in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump’s head’
An organizer for a funeral procession for Soleimani reportedly called on all Iranians to donate $1 each ‘in order to gather an $80million bounty on President Trump’s head’
‘Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!’ Trump tweeted on Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, after spending the day at his nearby golf course.
‘Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,’ Trump said.
‘He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years,’ he continued.
Trump’s threat referenced the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1981, in which 52 US diplomats and citizens were held hostage by student revolutionaries in Iran.
His threat to target sites important to ‘Iranian culture’ drew many accusations from critics that he was threatening to commit ‘war crimes’. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the list of US targets from DailyMail.com.
‘They attacked us, & we hit back,’ Trump said of the drone strike on Soleimani, which followed assaults on the US embassy in Baghdad by pro-Iranian militiamen.
‘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!’ he said.
‘The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST in the World! 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!’ he said.
On Sunday, Information and Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi tweeted: ‘Like ISIS, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate cultures. Trump is a terrorist in a suit. He will learn history very soon that NOBODY can defeat ”the Great Iranian Nation & Culture”.’
In a CNN interview, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said: ‘The response for sure will be military and against military sites.’
‘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.
‘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,’ he added.
Dehghan was referring to Khamenei’s statement in May when the supreme leader said Tehran does not seek war with the US.
At the time, Khamenei said: ‘There won’t be any war. The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance. We don’t seek a war, and they don’t either. They know it´s not in their interests.’
Earlier on Saturday, an Iranian official said at least 35 US targets, including warships and Tel Aviv, have been identified for retaliatory strikes.
Iranian General Gholamali Abuhamzeh, a Revolutionary Guards commander in the southern province of Kerman, said vital American targets in the region were identified a ‘long time ago’, including ships in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and Tel Aviv.
‘The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there … some 35 US targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach,’ he said, according to Reuters.
Hezbollah, an Islamic political and militant group, has also warned Iraqi soldiers to stay at least 1,000 meters away from US military bases from Sunday onwards.
Vowing vengeance for Soleimani’s death, Iranians raised the blood-red ‘flags of revenge’ over the minarets at the revered Jamkaran Mosque in the holy city of Qom on Saturday.
A retaliation attack from Iran could be seen ‘within weeks’ either at home or abroad, a senior congressional staffer told Time.
The staffer said: ‘There is no indication that there is going to be a de-escalation in the near future. The only question is how bad is the retaliation going to be and where and what is it going to hit.’
Abuhamzeh’s concerning remarks that Iran has previously identified targets seems to confirm the State Department’s reasoning behind the airstrike on Friday.
The State Department said: ‘General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.’
‘The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.’
Meanwhile, one of the Iranian-backed militia Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, warned Iraqi soldiers to vacate any premises near US bases housing American soldiers in a thinly-veiled threat.
‘The leaders of the security forces should protect their fighters and not allow them to become human shields to the occupying Crusaders,’ the statement said, regarding coalition bases.
In a press conference after Friday’s airstrike, Trump said Soleimani was plotting attacks against Americans in a press conference after the airstrike.
‘Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,’ the president revealed in a press conference.
Although the specific locations of the 35 targets have not been disclosed, the US Embassy in Baghdad and the military base could be potential targets.
This comes off the heels of the slaying of an American contractor who was killed in a rocket attack a week ago while working at an Iraqi military base in the country’s northern region.
The US retaliated by launching an attack on five Popular Mobilization militia bases in Iraq and Syria, killing more than 24 people and inciting a nearly two-day siege of the United States Embassy in Baghdad.
Following Soleimani’s death, several Iranian officials and the 62-year-old’s supporters vowed revenge on the US.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US made a ‘grave mistake’ in killing Soleimani and will supposedly suffer consequences for years to come.
