Trump: if Tehran attacks, it will be 'official end of Iran'
President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Iran on
Sunday, suggesting that if Iran attacks American interests, it will be
destroyed, AFP reported.
"If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end
of Iran. Never threaten the United States again," Trump said in a tweet.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been on the rise
as the United States has deployed a carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf
over what it termed Iranian "threats." This account has been met with
widespread skepticism outside the United States.
The White House has sent mixed signals in recent days, amid
multiple US media reports of infighting in Trump's cabinet over how hard to
push Washington's arch foe Iran.
The Trump administration has ordered non-essential
diplomatic staff out of Iraq, citing threats from Iranian-backed Iraqi armed
groups, and sent an aircraft carrier and heavy B-52 bombers to the region.
On Sunday, a Katyusha rocket was fired into Baghdad's Green
Zone housing government offices and embassies including the US mission. It was
not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
According to US media reports, Trump's long-hawkish national
security advisor John Bolton is pushing a hard line on Iran, but others in the
administration are resisting.
Trump himself said recently that he has to
"temper" Bolton.
Iran's foreign minister downplayed the prospect of a new war
in the region on Saturday, saying Tehran opposed it and no party was under the
"illusion" Iran could be confronted.
"We are certain... there will not be a war since
neither we want a war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran
in the region," Mohammad Javad Zarif told state-run news agency IRNA at
the end of a visit to China.
Iran-US relations hit a new low last year as US Trump pulled
out of a 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed unilateral sanctions that had been
lifted in exchange for Tehran scaling back its nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia called Sunday for emergency regional talks to
discuss the mounting Gulf tensions, saying that it does not want war with Iran
but is ready to defend itself.
It comes days after mysterious sabotage attacks on several
tankers in highly sensitive Gulf waters and drone strikes on a Saudi crude
pipeline by Yemen rebels who Riyadh claimed were acting on Iranian orders.
King Salman invited Gulf leaders and Arab League member
states to two emergency summits in Mecca on May 30 to discuss recent
"aggressions and their consequences", the kingdom's official SPA news
agency reported late Saturday.
Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel
al-Jubeir, said Sunday his country does not want to go to war with Iran but
would defend itself.
Saudi Arabia "does not want a war, is not looking for
it and will do everything to prevent it," he said.
"But at the same time, if the other side chooses war,
the kingdom will respond with strength and determination to defend itself and
its interests."
The kingdom's regional allies welcomed the Saudi invitation.
The United Arab Emirates' foreign ministry said the current "critical
circumstances" require a unified Arab and Gulf stance.
Oil producing countries met Sunday in Saudi Arabia to
discuss how to stabilize a volatile oil market amid the rising US-Iran
tensions, which threaten to disrupt global supply.
Oil supplies are sufficient and stockpiles still rising
despite massive output drops from Iran and Venezuela, said Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates said at the meeting in Jeddah.
'Childish regimes'
Qatar Sunday weighed in on the escalating tensions, saying
it did not believe the US or Iran wanted a war in the region.
"US President Donald Trump has said he does not want
war, and I do not think Iran wants war or instability in the region,"
minister of state for foreign affairs Sultan al-Muraikhi told AFP on the
sidelines of a Qatar Fund for Development briefing.
"I think if we move away from the childish regimes in
the region, all troubles will be settled."
Muraikhi said Doha – which remains isolated by neighboring
former allies in a long-running diplomatic dispute – has not yet received a
formal invitation to either meeting.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt
are among the countries that cut ties with Qatar in June 2017 over accusations
it supports terrorism and seeks closer ties with Tehran.
Four ships including two Saudi oil tankers were damaged in
mysterious sabotage attacks last Sunday off the UAE's Fujairah, near the Strait
of Hormuz – a vital maritime route for oil exports which Iran has threatened to
close in the event of a war.
That incident was followed by drone strikes Tuesday claimed
by Yemen's Iran-aligned rebels on a major Saudi oil pipeline built as an
alternative export route if the Strait of Hormuz were to be closed.
Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of ordering the pipeline
attacks, targeting "the security of oil supplies... and the global economy".