Photo Credit: Mass Comm. Spec. 2nd Class Zachary A. Anderson / US Navy
President Donald Trump may be losing his patience, or at the very least, becoming somewhat exasperated with the attitude of the Iranian government, which has turned away two separate attempts by different countries to mediate a “cool down” between Tehran and the United States.
On Saturday night, the president devoted three full tweets to lecturing the Iranian leadership on the reasons why it was a good idea to kill Soleimani.
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“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently….
“….hundreds of Iranian protesters. He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years. Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have…..
“….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!” Trump tweeted.
Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
But Iran is having none of it, vowing “harsh revenge” for the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in a US air strike early Friday morning.
Soleimani was responsible for the death of an American contractor in Iraq on December 27, among the other myriad attacks he orchestrated in the region.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement he spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night to “underscore the importance of countering Iran’s malign influence and threats to the region.
“I am always grateful for Israel’s steadfast support in defeating terrorism,” Pompeo said. “The bond between Israel and the United States is unbreakable.”
While the two nations seems to be uniting on military actions against Iranian terrorism, the Middle East coalition that has been an ongoing diplomatic project of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to have blossomed as well.
The British Secretary of Defense said this weekend the Royal Navy is sending two warships – the HMS Montrose and the HMS Defender, to the Persian Gulf, immediately, to escort and protect British commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump is sending a substantial military force to the region to underline his point.
The USS Bataan was redirected to the Middle East after a joint naval exercise with Morocco was canceled. The amphibious assault ship is carrying the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) on board, which includes some 2,200 Marines, along with helicopters and other aircraft.
The amphibious ready group (ARG) and Marines are under way conducting routine operations while “demonstrating the inherent flexibility of our naval forces,” Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Comer, a spokesperson for the US Sixth Fleet told USNI News. “For operational security reasons, we do not discuss future operations.”
The Pentagon has also announced that 3,000 soldiers from Fort Bragg, North Carolina’s 82nd Airborne have also been sent to deploy to the region.
“Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
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