Iran ambassador: ‘We will act’ after US strike
Analysts: Possible war would be unconventional
Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Saturday “the response for a military action is military action,” as fears grew that a U.S. airstrike that killed the head of Tehran’s elite Quds force and mastermind of its security and intelligence strategy will draw Washington and the Middle East region into a broader military conflict.
Iran already vowed an unspecified harsh retaliation for the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani near the Iraqi capital’s international airport on Thursday. President Donald Trump said he ordered the strike to prevent a conflict with Iran because Soleimani was plotting attacks that endangered American troops and officials.
No evidence was provided. Analysts said because Iran can’t match the U.S.’s military strength, its potential targets for revenge range from rocket attacks on U.S. allies such as Israel to sabotaging oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for oil supplies.
It could also embark on a sustained campaign of cyber-warfare or target American citizens and troops abroad near embassies and consulates or military installations.
It will “not play out on U.S. televisions as some grand campaign. It will be asymmetric and messy, playing out on shipping lanes and computer servers,” said Gregory Brew, a historian of Iran and its oil industry, in a social media post.
Richard N. Haass, a former U.S. diplomat who worked for both Presidents Bush, said the “region (and possibly the world) will be the battlefield.”
Comments from Takht-Ravanchi that “we have to act and we will act” further raise the prospect of an all-out war.
“The U.S. started the economic war in May 2018 and they started a military war by an act of terror against one of our top generals,” Takht-Ravanchi said in remarks published by Iranian state media.
On Saturday, a series of rockets were launched and fell inside or near the Green Zone, which houses government offices and foreign embassies, including the U.S. Embassy.
No one was injured by a Katyusha rocket that fell inside a square less than one mile from the embassy, according to an Iraqi security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Another rocket in Baghdad landed about 546 yards from As-Salam palace where the Iraqi President Barham Salih normally stays in Jadriya, a neighborhood adjacent to the Green Zone, the official said.
Another security official said three rockets fell outside an air base north of Baghdad were American contractors are usually present.
The rockets landed outside the base in a farm area and there were no reports of damages, according to the official.