Raising the stakes? US to hit 'actual decision-makers' of attacks on American targets with 'lawful strikes'

RT
Sun, 05 Jan 2020 14:36 UTC

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US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo

Washington has apparently decided to further raise the stakes in the already potentially explosive conflict with Iran, with Mike Pompeo saying the US will continue to target the "masterminds" plotting attacks against Americans.

The US will continue to "respond with lawful strikes" targeting "actual decision makers" if it perceives a danger to any American targets, the secretary of state said. The remarks came as he continued to defend the assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani, which was ordered by President Donald Trump.

Pompeo maintained that Washington had "all the authority" to do what it had done, but added that the White House would keep Congress informed about developments in the Middle East from now on. His view on the "legality" of the American strikes on Iraqi soil was clearly not shared by Baghdad, which even filed a formal complaint over the incident with the UN secretary general and the UN Security Council.

He also argued that the killing of Soleimani, which sent shockwaves across both Iran and Iraq, with thousands of people hitting the streets to mourn the slain general and condemn the measures taken by the US, was still the best course of action.

"The intelligence assessment made clear that no action - allowing Soleimani to continue his plotting and his planning, his terror campaign - created more risk than taking the action that we took last week," the state secretary told ABC's This Week.

In an apparent attempt to calm things down a bit, Pompeo also said that he had "no doubt" the Iranian leadership "understands" Trump's view of the situation and "gets the message clearly." So far, however, the attack has only raised hostilities between Washington and Tehran to a whole new level.

Iran called the American strike "an act of international terrorism" and vowed revenge. Both sides are now trading threats, with a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps claiming that up to 35 "vital" US and Israeli targets are within Iran's reach, while Trump threatened to strike 52 Iranian sites should Tehran follow up on its revenge plans - adding later that "brand new" American military hardware worth trillions of dollars would head Iran's way in the event of retaliatory action.

Comment: A new phase and new threats, says Nasrallah:

The assassination of Qassem Soleimani has opened a new phase for the whole region, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has said, calling for attacks on US soldiers and military assets.

Iraqi resistance will not let a single US soldier stay in Iraq after the killing of the Iranian Quds force commander, Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Sunday.

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The Hezbollah leader, however, warned against harming any American civilians, as such acts will only play into the hands of US President Donald Trump, adding that every US military asset and serviceman in the region is fair game.

"When the coffins of American soldiers and officers begin to be transported ... to the United States, Trump and his administration will realize that they have really lost the region and will lose the elections," Nasrallah said.

Expulsion of the US from the whole Middle East is a fair price for the murder of Soleimani and other officials, Nasrallah said, issuing a rather grim threat to the US military. The suicide bombers, who had forced America to leave before, are still there - and now they are greater in numbers, he added.

Avenging the deaths of Soleimani and other high-ranking Iranian and Iraqi military officials, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Force (PMF) militia, is the responsibility of not only Iran but of all its allies in the region. Nasrallah urged all the members of the so-called 'Resistance Axis' to make up their minds on how they will deal with the assassination.

Trumps new bloat and gloat

Facing promises of retaliation for the killing of a popular Iranian general whose death he ordered personally, Donald Trump threatened in no uncertain terms to escalate the conflict further. He said that if Tehran fails to turn the other cheek, the US will hit 52 Iranian sites of great value. Hours later, the US president returned to Twitter to brag about the amount of money the US military has received for equipment under his watch.

Stocks of US defense contractors rose in the wake of the killing as investors predicted that there will be no shortage of US taxpayers' money going their way if, as Trump threatened, their products are headed for Iran.

See also: Trump: US will strike 52 Iranian sites 'very fast and very hard' if Tehran moves to avenge general's death - UPDATE: Zarif responds