FM Zarif Warns Trump Against New ‘Adventurism’

Date: 25 December 2020 - 21:23

News ID: ۸۵۸۵۷

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran on Thursday warned the U.S. president against any "adventurism” before leaving the White House, after Donald Trump said he would hold "Iran responsible” for any fatal attack on Americans in Iraq.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif’s comments came after Trump accused Iran of being behind a rocket attack Sunday on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, that caused material damage but no deaths.
The exchange also comes as tensions mount ahead of the first anniversary of the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
The U.S. embassy and other foreign military and diplomatic sites have been targeted by dozens of rockets and roadside bomb attacks since the autumn of 2019, but none of them have ever hit their targets.
The attacks have been claimed by shadowy groups, raising suspicions that they are acting on the order of U.S. authorities to push forth their objectives in the Arab country, which cannot be achieved any other way.
Several Iraqi factions condemned Sunday’s attack in unison.
Trump "uses a worthless photo to recklessly accuse Iran,” Zarif said on Twitter Thursday, referring to an image Trump had posted after the embassy attack of three rockets he baselessly claimed had come from Iran.
"Trump will bear full responsibility for any adventurism on his way out,” Zarif added, accompanied by a photo of the U.S. president and the occupying regime of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Last time, the U.S. ruined our region over WMD fabrications, wasting $7 TRILLION & causing 58,976 American casualties,” Zarif wrote, referring to the claim of weapons of mass destruction which the U.S. used as a

_)pretext to invade Iraq in 2003 but no such weapons were ever found.
Trump ordered a drone strike on January 3 this year to assassinate the Middle East’s iconic anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani while he was on an official visit in Baghdad.
Days later, Iran launched a volley of missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. and other coalition troops. Trump did not dare to respond to what Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei described just a "slap”l
The U.S. leader, now in his final weeks in office, is sticking to his "maximum pressure” approach toward the Iranian people who set an epic by turning out in tens of millions for the funeral of General Soleimani.
"Now we hear chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq,” Trump tweeted Wednesday, before warning, "if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.”
Zarif had responded earlier Thursday, tweeting, "Putting your own citizens at risk abroad won’t divert attention from catastrophic failures at home.”
The U.S. diplomatic mission has already partially withdrawn its staff, two senior Iraqi officials told AFP earlier this month.
The American news website Axios has said the United States was considering quickly closing its embassy in Baghdad after a series of rocket attacks on Iraq’s Green Zone.
A senior Iraqi lawmaker said Thursday reports of the U.S. bid to shut down its embassy in Baghdad are "groundless” rumors aimed at forcing the Iraqi government to give in to Washington’s demands.
Kate’ Al-Rikabi, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said the U.S. is using the indirect threat of closing its Baghdad embassy as a means of pressuring Iraq into implementing its demands.
"Foreign media outlets are trying to provoke public opinion in Iraq by spreading rumors of the U.S. embassy closure,” he said, according to Baghdad al-Youm.