Iran Targets the Green Zone Again After Trump's Speech

Apparently, the mullahs are willing to play with fire until President Trump decides to “Smoke them.”

Sanctions already in place since September 2019.

What more can he do without hurting the people of Iran which he claims he does not want to do?

Yemenis protest against the U.S. over the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Policy analysts expect the U.S. to impose more sanctions on Iranian officials or companies that trade with Iran as tensions escalate between Tehran and Washington. Photo:yahya arhab

For his part, the president signals no further military strikes after Iran’s attack he will issue more economic sanctions.

Attack on U.S. forces in Iraq appeared calibrated to avoid further escalation; two rockets hit Baghdad Green Zone, causing no casualties

President Trump made his first official statement Wednesday after Iranian missile attacks on two Iraqi bases where U.S. troops are stationed.

Trump said more “punishing economic sanctions” will be imposed on Iran.

Photo: Saul Loeb By Alex Leary, Aresu Eqbali, Sune Engel Rasmussen and Dion Nissenbaum

President Trump’s reply:

That’s President Trump to you, you fat short North Korean dog eating dictator, with a bad hair cut, fire some more missiles and find out!

By Daniel Greenfield

FrontPage Magazine

January 8th, 2020

President Trump said Iran appears to be backing away from conflict with the U.S. and signaled no further U.S. military strikes, after an Iranian missile barrage on U.S. bases that seemed calibrated to avoid further escalation.

“Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world,” he said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday.

Hours after the president spoke, Iraqi security officials said two rockets landed in Baghdad’s Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions are located. They said they caused no casualties and it wasn’t clear who had fired them.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said one of the rockets landed just 80 to 100 yards from the U.S. embassy, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The earlier salvos of missiles, fired from Iran in the first hours of Wednesday local time, hit two bases where American military personnel were stationed.

Mr. Trump said no American or Iraqi lives were lost in the attack, which caused only minimal damage at the bases.

Mr. Trump said the U.S. would immediately impose more economic sanctions on Iran. He warned that the U.S. wouldn’t allow Iran to develop a nuclear arsenal and said Tehran must abandon those ambitions and end its support for terrorism.

“As long as I’m president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Trump said.

The limited nature of the strike indicated Tehran wanted to respond to the targeted killing of its top military commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, without triggering American retaliation.

“Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defense,” Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, wrote on Twitter.

“We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”

Tehran Vows Further Retaliation for Death of Top Leader.

Iran fired missiles at American troops in Iraq in response to the U.S. killing of top military commander Qassem Soleimani.

While Iran’s supreme leader pledged further attacks, the overnight barrage appeared calibrated to prevent a further escalation of hostilities. Photo: HO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

In a speech broadcast on state television, Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said Iran’s goal was to expel U.S. forces from the Mideast.

“Last night, they were given one slap,” he said.

“Such military actions are not enough as far the importance of retaliation is concerned.

What’s important is that their corruption-creating presence should end.”

In his address, Mr. Trump criticized the previous U.S. policy toward Iran. “The missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration,” he said.

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Satellite photo was taken Wednesday showing apparent damage at Al Asad airbase in Iraq. Photo: planet/Reuters

Before Iran’s missile strikes, Washington issued stern warnings that any attack on U.S. forces would be met with a forceful response. On Sunday, Mr. Trump vowed to “quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner” if Iran retaliated.

In a break from past actions, Iran chose to hit the U.S. military directly. It has previously relied on unconventional attacks by militias it supports, giving the country a degree of plausible deniability.

The strike was a gamble that “showcases the country’s preference for looking tough even when the risk of military escalation is so high,” said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London.

Iraqi security forces said 22 rockets fell on sites housing coalition forces, including two that didn’t explode.

That count differed from tallies by the U.S., which said 15 were fired, with four failing.

A spokesman for Iraq’s prime minister’s office said it had been informed by Iran shortly beforehand that an attack would take place, and that it would be limited to unspecified U.S. military locations. Following the killing of Gen. Soleimani, Iraq’s parliament passed a resolution calling for the expulsion of American forces.

There were signs U.S. officials were making preparations ahead of the attack that could have limited the damage.

An Iraqi army captain stationed on the Al Asad base said he had visited the area housing coalition forces two days before the missile strike.

“We saw U.S. soldiers in the training yard.

They were removing some portable rooms they set up there before and they also moved some of their equipment, just like they were leaving the area,” the captain said.

It was “as if they knew something was about to happen,” he added.

The captain said he believed the missiles had struck that part of the base, hitting metal storage containers and a runway.

Iran’s attack was aimed at two audiences, said Dina Esfandiary, a London-based fellow with The Century Foundation think tank: at the U.S. to show a desire to de-escalate by not killing any Americans, as well as at Iranians to meet a demand for revenge.

“It would have been impossible for them to sit quietly in the corner and be alright with the assassination of one of their most senior and popular officials. So they had to do something,” Ms. Esfandiary said.

The attack, and footage of the missile launches broadcast by state television, garnered praise from many Iranian social-media users for the Revolutionary Guard.

Other Iranians on Twitter mocked the Guard for failing to inflict much damage.

“I don’t think their intention was to inflict casualties,” said Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran. “It was a warning shot.”

Still, the attacks were the latest blow in what has been a rapidly escalating conflict between Tehran and Washington.

And even if Iran sought to de-escalate the conflict with its recent attack, the situation could quickly spiral out of control, analysts said.

“For a symbolic attack, ballistic missiles are a wild tool,” said Fabian Hinz, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California.

“It’s like doing a symbolic attack with a hammer.”

In gauging its response to the Iranian attack, the Trump administration has to weigh the risks of an unpredictable regional clash that could trigger strikes on America’s main allies in the Middle East, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Attacks over the past year on shipping and oil facilities in the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia have rattled energy markets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Wednesday that any Iranian strike on Israel would be met with a forceful response.

“Anyone who attacks us will receive a resounding blow,” he said in Jerusalem.

In his remarks, Mr. Trump called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance to become “much more involved” in the Middle East. His address, which lasted about 10 minutes, closed by saying the U.S. “is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it.”

The Iranian attack in the early hours of Wednesday prompted Saudi Arabia’s state tanker operator to suspend transits through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean through which some 20% of the world’s oil supply passes.

Ms. Esfandiary said the attack resembled a strike on Saudi oil facilities in September, which showed Iran’s capabilities by severely hurting the kingdom’s oil production with a surprising level of precision while avoiding casualties.

Kuwait’s government said Wednesday that the social-media account of its state news agency KUNA was hacked. It said posts had appeared on the account saying U.S. military forces in Kuwait would withdraw from the Gulf state.

The state news agency later issued a statement saying the posts weren’t legitimate. It didn’t say who may have perpetrated the hack or how long the social-media account wasn’t under government control.

Iran Strikes U.S. Troops in Iraq in Retaliation Over Soleimani’s Death

THE END