By Marufh Bello
Yesterday in Washington DC, Donald Trump, the American president, said he would not use a military might against Iran, rather economic strength would be deployed and peace sought with all the countries across the world.
Trump stated this in a live broadcast in the White House where he addressed the Americans and the world at large following the missile strike launched on the US military bases in the Iraqi border as a response to the killing of the Iranian most powerful and influential military leader, General Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani, who was killed in the US airstrike on Friday 3rd January 2020 near the Baghdad airport alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis of Iraq and others, was interred in his home town on Wednesday 8th January due to large procession and stampede that occurred when the Iranians were trying to pay their last respect to their fallen hero, which prevented the burial of the general at the initially scheduled date(s).
Trump stated, “We will continue more and powerful economic sanctions on the Iranian regime and the sanctions will remain until Tehran changes its behaviour,” adding that Iran was lucky no American or Iraqi was harmed in the airstrike.
The US president said, “US is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it,” but added that the “American army are prepared for anything,” as he maintained that, “as long as I’m American leader Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” and the Iranian regime would not be allowed to thrive in terrorism.
Trump therefore charged Europe, China, Russia and other world leaders to break away from the remnants of the 2015 nuclear agreement as he established that “NATO will get more involved in the Middle East process.”
The American leader however noted that the “Iranian regime appears to be standing down after killing of Soleimani,” while reminding Tehran that he had helped them fight ISIS and had once gifted them financial aids.
In a swift reaction to Trump’s speech, Dorsa Jabbari, an Aljazeera correspondent in Tehran, stated that America did not give Iran any financial aid and that there was nothing like Iran stepping down after the killing of General Soleimani.
She stated that the USD150,000 Trump was referring to was actually the Iranian fund sanctioned by the American government since the 1979 revolution, the fund which was released to Tehran in 2015, adding that she did not know where the Trump’s impression of Iran standing down was coming from when Iranian leaders were consistently threatening retaliation as a leader had said the airstrike on the US military base in Iraq was a slap on the American face.
In the meantime, the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has urged the Washington and Tehran to exercise restraint as the feud between them raged on, while Benjamin Netayanhu, the Israeli Prime Minister, has thrown his full weight behind the US saying, “Israel stands completely beside the American state.”
