US President Donald Trump is even more of a threat to Iran than Saddam Hussein was, government spokesman Ali Rabiei has suggested.
“Some political elites at various levels do not believe that today Trump is more violent and brutal than Saddam, endangering the lives, health, and livelihoods of Iranians,” Rabiei said, his remarks being cited by the Iranian Student News Agency.
“If Saddam wanted to seize Khuzestan and [the Iranian city of] Khorramshahr, and even in his own words, at least Arvand Rud [River] from Iranians, today, Trump is seeking to fragment and cut down Iran, to defeat the national spirit and identity of Iranian society,” he added.
Though Saddam Hussein’s government threatened to destroy Iranian villages and cities, today Trump is threatening to destroy the country’s cultural and civilization centers, Rabiei suggested, recalling Trump’s controversial threats earlier this year to attack “52 Iranian sites,” including “some at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture” amid raging Iranian-US tensions in the aftermath of the US assassination of Revolutionary Guard Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.
....targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2020
“Saddam’s regime targeted our people with rockets and bombs…and today Trump has targeted the health, life and livelihood of the people by bombardment through economic sanctions and assassinations,” the spokesman continued.
Rabiei also accused the Trump administration of assassinating Soleimani because of the defeat of its campaign in support of the Daesh (ISIS)* terrorists, just as Iran accused Iraq of targeting Iran-Iraq War Ground Force Commander Ali Sayad Shirazi, who was assassinated by the Baghdad-backed People’s Mujahedin of Iran in 1999.
Rabiei suggested that whereas during the Iran-Iraq War, the frontlines were on the battlefields, today the frontline is the war against economic terrorism and economic war.
The spokesman stressed that Iran would "never succumb" to US bullying or coercion, and would, sooner or later, bring the bullies to their knees.
Iran-US Tensions
Last week, the Pentagon deployed the USS Nimitz-led carrier strike group into the Persian Gulf, with Tehran saying it would be closely monitoring the US’s “theatrical” attempt at a show of force.
* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.