International tensions that appeared to have subsided briefly reignited on Friday as the United States and Iran exchanged warnings, starting with US President Donald Trump remarks that a military aircraft carrier strike group along with other assets are heading towards the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States had an American aircraft carrier group heading toward Iran, something he likened to an “armada” in comments to journalists onboard the Air Force One, but hoped he would not have to use it, as he renewed warnings to Tehran against killing protesters or restarting its nuclear programme. Track latest developments in Iran-US tensions here
“We’re watching Iran… you know we have a lot of ships going that direction just in case… we have a big flotilla going in that direction and we’ll see what happens… we have a big force going towards Iran… I’d rather not see anything happening… we have an armada, a massive fleet heading in that direction,” Trump had said, mentioning the “cancelled” executions in between.
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Iran’s harshest warning to Trump
Responding to Trump, a senior Iranian official said on Friday Iran will treat any attack “as an all-out war.”
“This military buildup – we hope it is not intended for real confrontation – but our military is ready for the worst-case scenario. This is why everything is on high alert in Iran,” Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it – as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this,” the official said.
The pace of anti-government protests in Iran that stirred international tensions went down last week with no latest reports or videos of unrest leaking out of the country which was under a communication blackout for days.
The Iranian government’s crackdown on protests that started spreading from late December last year have reportedly killed at least 5,000 people, but some groups believe the actual toll could be much more.
Iran protest death toll
Trump issued multiple warnings of intervention, triggering calls for peace from other leader across the world .
The overall death toll from a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 5,032, Associated Press news agency quoted activists as saying.
Analysts believe a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, a move he has not taken so far despite repeated warnings to Tehran.
“While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen,” AP quoted New York-based think tank the Soufan Center’s analysis on Friday.
The mass execution of prisoners had been one of Trump’s red lines for military action, the other being the killing of peaceful demonstrators. However, there was a development on this front too on Friday.
Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he halted the hangings of 800 detained protesters there “completely false.”
Trump has repeatedly said Iran halted the execution of 800 people detained in the protests, without elaborating on the source of the claim. On Friday, Iran’s top prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi strongly denied that in comments carried by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency, AP reported.
