Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accuses US of plotting to fabricate war pretext
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States on Thursday of aiming to fabricate a "pretext for war" as tensions mount between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump had recently tweeted that the US was hearing "chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq" and warned that "if one American is killed, I will holdIranresponsible. Think it over."
Since mid-November,the United States has sent B-52 bombers onmissions in the Persian Gulf three times, including a 30-hour round trip from North Dakota to the Gulf on December 29.
Pentagon officials say the military muscle-flexing is meant to warn Tehran off attacking American interests or personnel in the days surrounding the January 3 anniversary of the Trump administration's assassination of the powerful Iranian leader military commanderQasem Soleimani.
Soleimani's killing at age 62 sharply heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, whose decades-old animosity had deepened when Trump withdrew fromIran's nuclear deal and launched a "maximum pressure" campaign to isolateIran.
Within days,Iranretaliated to the killing of a military leader long deemed untouchable by firing rockets at Iraqi bases housing US forces, which claimed no lives but caused injuries and preceded a tragedy.