United States of America threaten Iran would face “severe consequences” if Tehran attacked US citizens. This threat was made after Iran imposed sanctions on more than 50 US citizens.
“Remember: the United States will protect and defend its citizens. If Iran attacks our citizens, including the 52 mentioned yesterday, they will suffer severe consequences,” said US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, was quoted as saying AFP, Sunday (9/1).
Sullivan delivered the ultimatum a day after Iran announced sanctions against 51 Americans over the 2020 assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.
To date, AFP and Reuters It is not yet clear whether the 52 people Sullivan referred to were actually citizens of the targets of Iran’s sanctions.
Relations between the two countries are heating up again after Iran commemorates the second anniversary of Soleimani’s departure. The general died in a US attack on Baghdad airport, Iraq, on January 3, 2020.
Tensions between the two countries were inevitable after the US launched the attack. At that time, the US and Iran were even on the verge of fighting head-to-head, but confrontation was eventually avoided.
In the process of investigation, the attack that killed Soleimani was known to have not received approval from the US Congress. The US Department of Defense stated that it carried out the attack on the direct orders of the then president, Donald Trump.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, stated that the US attack and this assassination operation could have been legal if Soleimani had actually threatened. However, the US could not provide evidence that Soleimani actually posed a threat.
“There is no threat to life, making this action taken by the US against the law,” Callamard said in a report he submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in July 2020.
Iraq has issued a warrant for the arrest of Donald Trump on charges of killing Soleimani. An East Baghdad court issued a warrant for Trump’s arrest under section 406 of the Criminal Code, which provides for the death penalty for premeditated murder.
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