US President Donal Trump issued a public warning to the Iranian regime on Sunday, saying that if the two countries went to war, it would mark the “official end of Iran”.
The President tweeted, “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”
Trump’s tweet came after a rocket landed less than a mile from the US Embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. A heavily fortified location in the cities Green Zone.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it lines up with recent threats from Iran and their proxies in the region.
Tensions have been rising in the Middle East, in particular between the US and Iran, after Iran threatened to break the conditions of the Iran Deal (the JCPOA), saying it will increase its uranium enrichment if its demands were not met.
The US is currently applying additional sanctions on Iran which are hurting its struggling economy. However, the White House will consider taking additional action beyond sanctions if needed.
In response to these increasing threats, the US bolstered its military capabilities in the region, moving an aircraft carrier strike group into the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon also said it was sending several nuclear-capable B-52s to the region in response to Iran’s plots to attack US forces.
National Security Advisor John Bolton said this move was “a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”
Despite the warnings and posturing, the President was clear that he does not want war with Iran, saying in a Fox News interview, “I’m not somebody that wants to go into war, because war hurts economies, war kills people most importantly – by far most importantly.”
However, the President made clear that America could not allow the Iranian regime to acquire nuclear weapons.
UK on high alert over Iran’s threats
Britain has raised the threat level for UK forces and diplomats in Iraq because of what sources say is a heightened security risk from Iran.
According to Sky News, the UK has also put its personnel and their families in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar on an increased state of alert.
Contingency plans in case the UK decides it has to remove personnel from all or any of these countries have started to be activated, though this is only at a very early stage and is currently precautionary in case the crisis escalates, a number of sources told Sky.
One Whitehall source said Britain believes there is an increased likelihood of Iran or its proxies taking action against British, US or other allied interests in the region in a way that can be plausibly denied so as to avoid triggering an all-out war.
The UK’s intelligence agencies said that if Iran was to target British interests in the region it was likely to be carried out by an Iranian funded terror group and made not to look like Iran had a hand in it. It was also unlikely that the UK would be struck specifically, but that it could be a private company working with the UK that was attacked.
The aim would be to cause disruption but not to do something that could be directly linked back to the regime and therefore trigger a hard US response.
Vigilant to the threat of Iran
Over the past three years, CUFI UK has led the calls to ban Hezbollah in the UK. We have more recently launched Operation Mordecai which is CUFI UK’s strategic plan to highlight the threat from Iran to Israel and the West.
The on-going campaign involves a number of actions on wide-ranging issues relating to Iran, but its primary aim is to ensure Britain positions itself on the right side of history by defending Israel against the tyrannous Iranian regime.
Operation Mordecai takes inspiration from the Biblical account of Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, whom having heard of the plot to annihilate the Jews, sought the Lord, warned about what was planned and took action. Please see below for more details about this campaign and how you can get involved.
Christians United for Israel UK
