US President Donald Trump stressed that there were no casualties among US forces in Iraq as a result of the bombing by Iran last night on military bases in Iraq.
Trump said that his country does not want to use military force against Iran, and announced that the United States will impose additional economic sanctions on the Iranian regime, and these sanctions will continue until Iran changes its behavior, considering that the economy is the greatest deterrent.
He added that Iran funded terrorism through the money it obtained from the nuclear agreement, and there was hell in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and other regions.
"Iran must end its nuclear ambition and end its support for terrorism," he said, adding that the five countries that signed this agreement with Iran (Russia, China, Germany, Britain, and France) must know the reality of this country and withdraw from the nuclear agreement.
Trump stressed that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon as long as he remains President of the United States. He said that the countries of the world endured the destabilizing Iranian behavior in the region, "but these days are over."
Trump revealed that there were no casualties among the American soldiers in the Iranian attack, noting that there were slight and minor damages to the military bases that were attacked.
He stressed that the American forces are ready for all possibilities, and they are present in the region, "which is excellent for all concerned parties and the world."
On the assassination of Soleimani, Trump said, "We killed Qassem Soleimani, the first terrorist in the world, as responsible for the Quds Force, he was responsible for the greatest atrocities ... His hands were stained with American blood and should have ended long ago."
"Our message is clear to the terrorists ... you will not threaten the lives of the Americans," he said, addressing his letter to Iran, saying, "The terror campaign will not be accepted any longer, and we will not allow you to move forward in this way."
Trump has spoken of talks he will hold with NATO partners to participate in an operation in the Middle East, but he has not disclosed the nature of this process or participation.
Iranian novel
Iran announced that it had fired missiles at American targets in Iraq at dawn today, Wednesday, in retaliation for the killing of a prominent Iranian military commander, Qasim Soleimani, in a US attack by a plane that flew near Baghdad airport.
However, US President Donald Trump wrote in an initial comment on Twitter that "everything is fine".
The Pentagon confirmed that Iran launched more than 12 ballistic missiles at Ain al-Assad base in Anbar and a silk base in Erbil, both of which host American forces, and sources in Washington denied there were casualties among Americans.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the Iranian people had dealt a "strong blow" to the United States, and that the response to Soleimani's killing would be to remove American forces from the region.
As for the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, he said that his country had taken "calculated measures" in the framework of self-defense and had not tried to escalate the confrontation, and that those strikes "completed" Iran's response to Soleimani's death.
After the Iranian missile attack, state television showed footage of Soleimani's burial and said, "We took revenge ... Now he can rest in peace."
Did Iran avoid killing Americans?
CNN and Reuters quoted US and European government sources as saying that there are assessments indicating that Iran has deliberately sought to avoid any losses among US soldiers during its missile strikes at the Ein Al-Assad and Harir bases.
CNN also quoted sources as saying that the Iraqi side had alerted the Americans before the Iranian missile attack.
Fox News channel quoted Pentagon officials as saying that the US military did not attempt to intercept ballistic missiles launched by Iran, because there are no American military equipment that can drop those missiles at Ein al-Assad and Harir bases.
The officials indicated that the two air defense systems, Patriot and Avenger, were not deployed in the two bases targeted by the Iranian bombing.
The officials added that Washington has focused over the past years on defeating the Islamic State and strengthening the American military presence in Iraq, which did not necessitate the deployment of air defense systems.