Trump says US has RIGHT to strike Iranian sites and threatens sanctions against IRAQ after call to kick out US troops
PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his threat to target 52 Iranian sites, also warning that he may hit Iraq with new sanctions.
Trump made the comments on Air Force One after Iranian officials reportedly placed an $80 million bounty on the president's head.
Returning from a holiday in Florida, Trump reiterated Saturday's threat that if Iran were to strike any Americans or American assets, the US has 52 Iranian sites that would be hit "very fast and very hard."
The president previously said in a series of that 52 sites had been selected because the number represented 52 hostages taken by Iran many years ago.
Some of these sites, the president said, include those of cultural significance to Iran.
Such an attack on cultural sites would be considered a war crime under the 1954 Hague treaty.
Trump, however, said he was undeterred.
According to a pool report, Trump told reporters: "They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people.
"They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. It doesn’t work that way.”
![Iranian president Hassan Rouhani told General Soleimani's daughter that Iran would "avenge [her father's] blood"](http://mcb777.site/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/NINTCHDBPICT000551795124.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
In response to Trump's previous comments, Iran has reportedly put an $80 million bounty on the president's head and said it has identified 35 "vital American targets" it could hit.
Trump's discussion on Air Force One came on a day when Iraq's parliament passed a resolution to urge its government to expel US troops from the country.
The vote passed amidst growing tension in the Middle East, following the US's killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Iraqi soil.
Though the vote does not formally revoke Iraq's invitation for the US to have a presence in the country, it is seen by experts as a movement in that direction.
According to a pool report, Trump told reporters: "We've spent a lot of money in Iraq.
"Iraq, was the worst decision, going into the Middle East was the worst decision ever made in the history of our country.
"We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it."
IRAN MOURNS GENERAL
Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, was killed in a targeted drone strike as he left Baghdad Airport in a convoy with a number of other military officials.
The strike came after the US embassy in Iraqi capital Baghdad was attacked by mobs wearing the uniform of the Hashd, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militia operating within Iraq.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani told Soleimani's daughter that Iran would "avenge [her father's] blood".
On Sunday, tens of thousands filled the streets of the Iranian city of Ahvaz chanting "Death to America" as Soleimani's body arrived from Iraq.
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Soleimani oversaw forces that have in recent years targeted civilians during conflicts in Syria and Iraq, but is viewed by some in Iran as a hero for his role in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Footage showed mourners holding portraits of Soleimani and waving Iranian flags as they marched.
Soleimani's body will be taken to the cities of Mashhad, Tehran, and Qom for public mourning processions before being returned to his hometown of Kerman for burial on Tuesday.
