A key military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei told CNN on Sunday that the response to the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani “for sure will be a military response against military sites.”
Hossein Dehghan, a former defense minister who is now a top official, also said that Iran did not start the current escalation with the U.S. “Let me tell you one thing,” he told the network. “Our leadership has officially announced that we have never been seeking war and we will not be seeking war.”
He added, “For sure no American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe. And they are accessible to us.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“It was America that has started the war,” he said. “Therefore, they should accept appropriate reactions to their actions. The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted. Afterward they should not seek a new cycle.”
Dehghan also called Trump’s Saturday tweet in which he threatened to attack 52 culturally important Iranian targets “ridiculous and absurd.”
“[Trump] doesn’t know international law.” Dehghan said, referring to a U.N. resolution that prohibits the destruction of cultural heritage. “Basically he is a veritable gangster and a gambler. He is no politician he has no mental stability.”
“If [Trump] wants to impose rule, logic and rationality over his decision he should accept that he is a war criminal and must be tried in a relevant court.”
