After that in the past few days President Donald Trump tried to reach out to Iran to deescalate the ever rising tension, he now issued a very stern warning.
In a tweet, Â Trump suggested Iran will be destroyed if a conflict breaks out between the two countries.
“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” he said in a tweet. “Never threaten the United States again!”
But Trump’s tweet marks a shift in tone after recent attempts to downplay the possibility of military conflict.
If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2019
Only a matter of days ago, the president told aides that he did not want US pressure on Iran to turn into a conflict.
And when asked by reporters last Thursday if the US was going to war, Trump answered: “I hope not.”
Iran has also moved to talk down concerns over the escalating tensions. On Saturday, its foreign minister insisted there was no appetite for war.
“There will not be a war since neither we want a war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran in the region,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told state news agency Irna.
And on Sunday Iran’s Fars news agency reported that the commander of the elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, also said Iran was not seeking a conflict – but added that the US was “afraid of war and don’t have the will for it”.
CNN’s reported that the US claims to have images of Iranian commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf that it believes are carrying missiles and other munitions, according to a US official with knowledge of the situation. The US government has provided no proof the ships are carrying hidden missiles and other munitions and CNN has not reviewed the intelligence that has led to the US assessment.
