US President Donald Trump warned Iran, Monday evening, against launching any attack on his country, promising that the response to it will be "a thousand times stronger", after media reports that Tehran had planned to assassinate an American ambassador in retaliation for the killing of the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, General Qassem Soleimani.
"Any attack by Iran, whatever its form, against the United States, will be met with a response to Iran that will be a thousand times stronger," Trump said in a tweet on Twitter.
The reaction of the US President came following press reports that Iran had drawn up a plot to "assassinate" the US ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, who is close to Trump, with information that Tehran had ridiculed, stressing that it was "baseless."
And Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced yesterday that he takes "very seriously" information that Iran has drawn up a plot to "assassinate" an American ambassador.
The minister added, "We will do everything we can to protect every official in the Foreign Ministry," warning Tehran that "attacking any American, regardless of place or time, whether he is a diplomat, ambassador or military, is absolutely unacceptable."
Trump (left) and Pompeo take seriously media reports that Tehran is planning to assassinate an American ambassador (Anatolia)
Intelligence information
The US news website Politico quoted two unnamed officials as saying that the intelligence services believe that the Iranian government is planning to assassinate the ambassador in South Africa.
The website quoted its sources as saying that this plan was discovered by Washington during the spring, and its features have become more accurate in recent weeks, indicating that Tehran planned to assassinate Ambassador Marx in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani, who was assassinated by order of Trump in January by an air strike carried out by an American drone near Baghdad Airport.
Soleimani (center) was assassinated in an air strike carried out by an American drone near Baghdad Airport (Al-Jazeera)
Iran responds
Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry responded to the Politico report by saying that what was reported by the US news site was merely "false and unfounded information."
And the ministry considered - in the words of its spokesman - that this information is nothing but "repeated and nauseating methods to create an atmosphere hostile to Iran in the international arena."
Tensions have escalated between Washington and Tehran after Trump withdrew from the last nuclear agreement with the major powers in May 2018, and he also re-imposed severe economic sanctions on Iran, in implementation of the policy of "maximum pressure" that he wants to force it to agree to a "better agreement."