Iran warned the US not to make a “strategic mistake” after President Trump threatened the Islamic Republic over a report of an alleged Iranian plot to kill the US ambassador to South America.
“We hope that they do not make a new strategic mistake and certainly in the case of any strategic mistake, they will witness Iran’s decisive response,” Ali Rabiei, an Iranian government spokesman, said on Tuesday. Rabiei was responding to comments President Trump made in a tweet on Monday night.
“According to press reports, Iran may be planning an assassination, or other attack, against the United States in retaliation for the killing of terrorist leader Soleimani,” Trump said. “Any attack by Iran, in any form, against the United States will be met with an attack on Iran that will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude!”
The report Trump was referring to is a story from Politico that was published on Sunday. The report cited anonymous US government sources and alleged Iran was mulling a plot to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa in retaliation for the January assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Shortly after the Politico piece was published, the report faced skepticism from South African intelligence. A South African intelligence source told the Daily Maverick that the plot was “not likely to be real.” The source said, “There appears to be, from our perspective, no discernible threat. Least of all from the source that it purports to emanate from.”
So Trump is making threats based on fake news he should know better after being on the receiving end of so much of it.
Well, at least in his mind he was on the receiving end of it.