Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Says Iran 'Starts No Wars' In Response To US President's Words Tehran Plans Attack

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Says Iran 'Starts No Wars' in Response to US President's Words Tehran Plans Attack

Iran has allies and "starts no wars," as it only conducts actions of self-defense, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday in response to the US president's statement about how Tehran might be planning an attack on US targets in Iraq

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2020) Iran has allies and "starts no wars," as it only conducts actions of self-defense, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday in response to the US president's statement about how Tehran might be planning an attack on US targets in Iraq.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said that Iran or its proxies might be planning an attack on the US military or assets in Iraq, and added that Tehran would pay a heavy price if it went through with it. The remarks came after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Iran considered the US forces' "warmongering" in Iraq to be dangerous and could create "catastrophic conditions" that would destabilize the region.

"Don't be mislead by usual warmongers, AGAIN, @realDonaldTrump: Iran has FRIENDS: No one can have MILLIONS of "proxies". Unlike the US�which surreptitiously lies, cheats & assassinates�Iran only acts in self-defense. Openly. Iran starts no wars, but teaches lessons to those who do," Zarif wrote in his Twitter.

In March, representatives of the US-led international coalition said that US military personnel and their equipment from several Iraqi bases would be redeployed and consolidated in 2020.

The number of bases where coalition forces will be deployed in Iraq will decrease. However, the coalition will remain in the country at the invitation of the Iraqi government and continue to advise and train local security forces.

The US reportedly this week deployed Patriot air defense systems to an Iraqi military base in the Anbar province as a precaution against Iranian-backed militia attacks. Meanwhile, some news outlets reported that the US was preparing an attack on Iran's Shiite militia proxies that had been accused of carrying out rocket attacks on Iraqi bases hosting foreign troops in recent months.

On Sunday, the coalition officially transferred K1 Air Base in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk to the Iraqi Armed Forces. Following that, the coalition's headquarters in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh near the Syrian border was also transferred to Iraq's army.