The back and forth continues.
President Trump on Saturday warned Iran that the United States has chosen 52 targets for retaliatory attacks should Tehran react militarily to Washington's airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani earlier this week. The targets, Trump tweeted, include some sites in Iran that are "important" to the nation's culture.
Several people — including Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zavad Jarif — have pointed out that United Nations resolutions prohibit the targeting of cultural heritage sites, though others have cautioned that, despite the president's words, the Pentagon won't provide Trump with a list of protected sites.
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Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told CNN in an exclusive interview Sunday that Iran's response to Soleimani's death "for sure will be military and against military sites," adding that no U.S. military staff, vessel, or base "will be safe."
Dehghan did maintain Tehran still wants to avoid full-fledged war between the two countries, but said it was Washington's responsibility not to escalate things further. "The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted," he said, referring to the Soleimani strike. "Afterward they should not seek a new cycle." Read more at CNN and NBC News.
