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Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accuses US of plotting to fabricate war pretext

WION Web Team
Tehran, IranUpdated: Dec 31, 2020, 07:40 PM IST
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Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (File photo) Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

US President Donald Trump had recently tweeted that the US was hearing 'chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq' and warned that 'if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over'

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States on Thursday of aiming to fabricate a "pretext for war" as tensions mount between the two countries.

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US President Donald Trump had recently tweeted that the US was hearing "chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq" and warned that "if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over."

Since mid-November, the United States has sent B-52 bombers on missions in the Persian Gulf three times, including a 30-hour round trip from North Dakota to the Gulf on December 29.

Pentagon officials say the military muscle-flexing is meant to warn Tehran off attacking American interests or personnel in the days surrounding the January 3 anniversary of the Trump administration's assassination of the powerful Iranian leader military commander Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani's killing at age 62 sharply heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, whose decades-old animosity had deepened when Trump withdrew from Iran's nuclear deal and launched a "maximum pressure" campaign to isolate Iran.

Within days, Iran retaliated to the killing of a military leader long deemed untouchable by firing rockets at Iraqi bases housing US forces, which claimed no lives but caused injuries and preceded a tragedy.