Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 1-7-20

Political News
Iranian MP Threatens To 'Attack The White House'
Iran Pulls Back From Nuclear Deal As Killing Of Iranian General Upends Mideast
Iranian MP Abolfazl Abu- torabi has reportedly threat- ened to attack the White House in response to a mes- sage from President Trump that promised severe conse- quences if the Islamic nation escalates hostilities with the U. S.
Abutorabi was responding to a question about how Iran should react to the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani during an Ameri- can airstrike, The Independent reported.
"We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God will- ing we will respond in an ap- propriate time," Abutorabi said according to the UK pub- lication, which cited Iranian news agency ILNA.
This comes as President Trump vowed to hit Iran hard should the country retaliate against the U. S. for Soleimani's death.
"Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our rid-
ABOLFAZL ABUTORABI
ding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including re- cently hundreds of Iranian protesters," Trump tweeted over the weekend.
The president continued: "He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other loca- tions. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years." Abutorabi called Soleimani's death "a decla- ration of war," and that a swift, strong response was neces- sary.
BEIRUT — The conse- quences of the American as- sassination of a top Iranian general rippled across the Middle East and beyond on Sunday, with Iran ending commitments it made to limit its nuclear fuel produc- tion and Iraqi lawmakers vot- ing to expel American forces from their country.
Steeling for retaliation from Iran, an American-led coalition in Iraq and Syria suspended the campaign it has waged against the Is- lamic State for years, and hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the street to mourn the assassinated gen- eral, Qassim Suleimani.
Warning Iran not to at- tack, President Trump said the United States had pinpointed 52 targets in Iran — including cultural sites. The sites, he said, repre- sented the 52 American hostages held at the United States Embassy in Tehran during the Islamic Revolu- tion in 1979.
Amid outrage in Iran, For-
IRANIAN PROTESTORS
Democrats Demand Answers On Soleimani Killing: 'This Is Not A Game'
eign Minister Moham- mad Javad Zarif declared that “targeting cultural sites is a war crime” and predicted that the “end of U. S. malign presence in West Asia has begun.”
Trump has said that the killing of General Suleimani on Friday was aimed at preventing war.
But so far, it has un- leashed a host of unantici- pated consequences that could dramatically alter where the United States op- erates. Increasingly, the killing appeared to be gener-
ating effects far beyond the United States’ ability to con- trol.
That may include Iran’s nuclear future.
On Sunday, the Iranian government said it was aban- doning its “final limitations in the nuclear deal,” the in- ternational agreement in- tended to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. The decision leaves no restrictions on Iran’s nu- clear program, the statement said, including on uranium enrichment, production, re- search and expansion.
Democrats on Sunday de- manded answers about the killing of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani as ten- sions mounted between the U. S. and Iran and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that the U. S. had faced an im- minent threat.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told ABC's "This Week" he wor- ried that Trump's decision "will get us into what he calls another endless war in the Middle East." He called for Congress "to assert" its author- ity and prevent Trump from "either bumbling or impul- sively getting us into a major war."
Speaking with "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said public as- surances from the Trump Ad- ministration that such a threat was "imminent" were simply not enough.
"I think we learned the hard way ... in the Iraq War, that ad- ministrations sometimes ma- nipulate and cherry-pick intelligence to further their po-
American Strike In Iraq Prompts Anti-War Protests In U. S. Cities
REP. CHUCK SCHUMER
litical goals," he said. "That's what got us into the Iraq War. There was no WMD. I'm saying that they have an obligation to present the evidence."
Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential con- tender and the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told CNN's "State of the Union" that until the administration provides answers on "how this decision was reached ... then this move is questionable, to say the least."
"I still worry about whether this president really under- stands that this is not a show, this is not a game," he said. "Lives are at stake right now."
WASHINGTON - Groups of protesters took to the streets in Washington and other U. S. cities on Saturday to condemn the air strike in Iraq ordered by President Donald Trump that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Trump's decision to send about 3,000 more troops to the Middle East.
"No justice, no peace. U. S. out of the Middle East," hun- dreds of demonstrators chanted outside the White House before marching to the Trump International Hotel a few blocks away.
Similar protests were held in New York, Chicago and other cities. Organizers at Code Pink, a women-led anti-war group, said protests were scheduled on Saturday in numerous U. S. cities and towns.
Protesters in Washington
People take part in an anti-war protest amid increased ten- sions between the United States and Iran at Times Square in New York, U.S., January 4, 2020.
held signs that read "No war or sanctions on Iran!" and "U. S. troops out of Iraq!"
Speakers at the Washing- ton event included actress and activist Jane Fonda, who last year was arrested at a climate change protest on the steps of the U. S. Capitol.
"The younger people here should know that all of the wars fought since you were born have been fought over oil," Fonda, 82, told the crowd, adding that "we can't anymore lose lives and kill people and ruin an environ- ment because of oil."
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