Iran threatens to kill Donald Trump
Iran’s threat to Donald Trump to avenge the death of General Qasem Soleimani also extends to former US diplomatic chief Mike Pompeo and former US Army commander Kenneth McKenzie. A senior Iranian regime military official, General Amirali Hajizadeh who heads the Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force, said publicly on Friday that his government wants to avenge the death of General Qasem Soleimani in a US operation in 2020, and that they hope “to kill” former US President Donald Trump.
“We hope to kill Trump, (former US Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo and (former US Army Central Command Middle East chief Kenneth) McKenzie, as well as military officials who gave the order to assassinate Soleimani,” General Amirali Hajizadeh told television.
“We are already capable of hitting US ships at a distance of 2,000 kilometres” with missiles, added the general, who heads the Aerospace Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed in January to “avenge” Soleimani’s “assassination“.
The Islamic Republic’s ballistic programmes are of concern to the West, which accuses the country of wanting to increase the range of its missiles and destabilise the Middle East and Israel, Tehran’s sworn enemy. On Saturday, state television broadcast footage of “a new Paveh cruise missile with a range of 1,650 kilometres”.
Trump ordered the attack that killed Soleimani
Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, the international branch of the Revolutionary Guards, was one of the most respected military leaders in his country. The general was killed in Baghdad in a US operation in January 2020.
Trump said at the time that he ordered the attack in response to a series of strikes against US interests in Iraq. Five days later, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at a US air base in Iraq without any casualties.
