Guards chief vows ‘decisive response’
Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief yesterday warned the US of a "decisive response" after President Donald Trump said he ordered the US Navy to destroy Iranian boats that harass American ships in the Gulf.
Iran and the United States have appeared to be on the brink of an all-out confrontation twice in the past year. Decades-old acrimony between the two sides worsened in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from a deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
Tensions escalated further in January when a US air strike killed Qasem Soleimani, the top Iranian general who headed the Guards' foreign arm, the Quds Force.
"We declare to the Americans that we are absolutely determined and serious... and that all action will be met with a decisive response that will be efficient and quick," Major General Hossein Salami said. "We have also ordered our naval units to target (US boats and forces) if they try to endanger the safety of our ships or boats of war."
The latest confrontation between the arch-foes came after the United States accused Iran of harassing its ships in the Gulf last week.
Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday as the Guards said they had launched the Islamic republic's first military satellite. The US president said he had "instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea".
In response, Iran yesterday summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran that represents US interests in the Islamic republic, state media said.
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