(UTV|COLOMBO) – The Trump administration has warned Tehran that there would be “hell to pay” if it continued to “cross” the US and its allies.
The threat was delivered by the national security adviser, John Bolton, a longtime Iran hawk who told an audience of anti-Tehran activists: “The murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behaviour”.
“Let my message today be clear: we are watching, and we will come after you,” Bolton said, according to early excerpts from his speech obtained by the Axios news website.
He added: “If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay.”
The bellicose tone was in striking contrast to an early morning tweet from Donald Trump saying he was sure that the Iranian president was an “absolutely lovely man”.
Later in the day, however, Trump toughened his language, blaming “the corrupt regime” for the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria, and for embezzling billions of dollars of the Iranian people’s money.
US European allies however, refused to abandon a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in the face of intense pressure to do so by Washington. Mike Pompeo expressed disappointment that European states had organised a parallel payments system as a way of bypassing US anti-Iran sanctions.
“This is one of most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security,” the US secretary of state said.
Administration critics have asked why the Trump administration was so focused on attacking Iran while lionising Kim Jong-un, the head of a dictatorship with a far worse human rights record than Iran, and which has a nuclear arsenal.
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