Trump warns Iran against any attack

US president vows ‘1,000 times greater’ response

US President Donald Trump has vowed that any attack by Iran would be met with a response “1,000 times greater in magnitude,” after reports that Iran planned to avenge the killing of top general Qasem Soleimani in January.

“Any attack by Iran, in any form, against the United States will be met with an attack on Iran that will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude!” Trump tweeted after reports of an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa.

Iran warned the US against making a “strategic mistake” after Trump threatened Tehran. “We hope that they do not make a new strategic mistake and certainly in the case of any strategic mistake, they will witness Iran’s decisive response,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a televised news conference.

Rabiei expressed regret

A US media report said that an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa was planned before the US presidential election in November.

that “the president of a country who has claims to global management and order would make hasty, agendafuelled and dubious remarks on such a weak basis.”

Nothing but disruption

He warned that reacting to such reports would “achieve nothing but disruption to the region and to world calm” and advised Trump to “refrain from fresh adventurism... for the sake of winning a new term as president.”

On Monday, the foreign ministry denied the report of an assassination plot as “baseless” and part of “repetitive and rotten methods to create an anti-Iranian atmosphere”.