President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with severe “consequences” if the country makes any more threats towards America, in some of the harshest rhetoric he has aimed at Tehran since assuming office. In a late-night Twitter post on Sunday, Mr. Trump warned President Hassan Rouhani in capital letters: “Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before.”
He went on: “We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!” The tweet appeared to be a response to Mr. Rouhani’s statement on Saturday warning Mr. Trump not to “play with fire” when it came to dealing with the Islamic state. “Don’t play with fire, or you will regret,” Mr. Rouhani said, according to the state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). “’Iranian people are the master and they will never bow to anyone.” IRNA said Mr. Rouhani told a group of Iranian diplomats that Americans should realize that establishing peace with Iran was the “mother of all peace” while war would be the “mother of all wars”.
The warning from Mr. Trump echoed the bellicose “ fire and fury” rhetoric that he employed last year during a heated exchange with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. While Mr. Trump often capitalizes words for effect, his Sunday evening comments appeared to take that approach to a new level. The Twitter post came several hours after Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state who is a hardliner on Iran, gave a speech to Iranian-Americans in California that castigated the regime in Tehran.
“We are asking every nation who is sick and tired of the Islamic Republic’s destructive behavior to join our pressure campaign. This especially goes for our allies in the Middle East and Europe, people who have themselves been terrorized by violent regime activity for decades,” Mr. Pompeo said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify Mr. Trump’s Twitter post.