Trump Threatened 52 Iranian Locations, Including Cultural Sites
In a series of tweets Saturday, President Trump vowed to attack more than 50 Iranian locations, including cultural sites, should the nation’s threats of retaliation for the killing of general Qassem Soleimani continue.
“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,” wrote the president. "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!”
The hostages Trump referred to were taken in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, which found pro-Ayatollah student revolutionaries storming the American embassy in Tehran and holding 52 Americans captive for more than a year.
The bellicose tweets stand in contrast to Trump’s Friday statement on the strike that killed Soleimani and nine others."We took action last night to stop a war,”said the president, “we did not take action to start a war.” He also professed a “deep respect for the Iranian people” and promised that the US does “not seek regime change."
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....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
....hundreds of Iranian protesters. He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years. Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
....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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Trump’s decision to target Soleimani shocked the Pentagon, amid disputed evidence that the high-raking Iranian military leader planned to attack Americans in the near future.
"American military officials put the option of killing" Soleimani "on the menu they presented to President Trump," wrote the Times. "They didn’t think he would take it. In the wars waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pentagon officials have often offered improbable options to presidents to make other possibilities appear more palatable."
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