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Iran | Official says Israeli cities can be targets as tension escalates

Published:Monday | January 6, 2020 | 12:18 AM
Coffins of General Qassem Soleimani and others who were killed in Iraq by a US drone strike are carried on a truck surrounded by mourners during a funeral procession in the city of Mashhad, Iran, yesterday. Soleimani’s death last Friday in Iraq further heightens tensions between Tehran and Washington after months of trading attacks and threats that put the wider Middle East on edge.
AP
Coffins of General Qassem Soleimani and others who were killed in Iraq by a US drone strike are carried on a truck surrounded by mourners during a funeral procession in the city of Mashhad, Iran, yesterday. Soleimani’s death last Friday in Iraq further heightens tensions between Tehran and Washington after months of trading attacks and threats that put the wider Middle East on edge.

A former leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa can be targeted to avenge a general killed by a United Strikes drone strike in Baghdad.

Mohsen Rezaee made the comment Sunday in Tehran at a ceremony in honour of the slain leader Qassem Soleimani.

He has previously alleged Israel somehow leaked information about Soleimani’s whereabouts to US forces, who killed him last Friday in a drone strike.

Israel and Iran are long-time foes.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, says America’s military in the Middle East region, including US bases, warships and soldiers are fair targets following the US killing of Iran’s top general.

The US-led coalition in Iraq yesterday said it is pausing operations in support of Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State militants.

The coalition says its focus will now be on protecting US. personnel and bases in Iraq, and it is suspending training for Iraqi forces.

The coalition’s decision on Sunday comes days after a US drone strike killed Iran’s top commander in Baghdad.

Tensions heightened

The killing has heightened tensions in the region and tested the US-Iraq alliance. Attacks on bases that house US forces are expected to increase.

Iraqi lawmakers also voted on Sunday in favour of a new bill that calls for the ending foreign military presence in the country. The resolution’s main aim is to get the US to withdraw some 5,000 of its troops present in different parts of Iraq.

The Iraqi resolution specifically calls for ending an agreement in which Washington sent troops to Iraq more than four years ago to help in the fight against the Islamic State group.

The resolution was backed by most Shiite members of parliament, who hold a majority of seats.

Many Sunni and Kurdish legislators did not show up for the session, apparently because they oppose abolishing the deal.

The US has warned American citizens in Saudi Arabia “of the heightened risk of missile and drone attacks”. It warned that US citizens living and working near military bases, oil and gas facilities and other critical civilian infrastructure are at heightened risk of attack, particularly in the Eastern Province where the oil giant Aramco is headquartered and areas near the border with Yemen.

President Donald Trump has issued a threat that Iranian cultural sites would be hit fast and hard if Tehran attacks US assets to avenge the killing of the powerful Iranian general.

-AP