US Leader Invokes Old Beef with Iran in Talking Targets

US President Donald Trump has cautioned Iran that if it retaliates against the United States for the American drone strike that killed Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani overnight between Thursday and Friday in Baghdad, the US would hit back “very fast and very hard.” In a Saturday tweet, President Trump wrote: “Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago)….” He was referring to the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, and the embassy staff and Marine guards who were then held for 444 days. It was a chapter in US history made even more bleak by the fact that a rescue attempt went awry, leaving eight US soldiers dead. In his tweet, President Trump described some of the targeted sites as being “at a very high level” and “important to Iran & the Iranian culture,” adding that they would be “HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”