Javad Zarif: Trump wasting billions sending B-52s to Gulf instead of fighting Covid

Tehran not seeking war, foreign minister says, amid heightened tensions with Washington

Then British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond gestures towards Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as then US Secretary of State John Kerry and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini looked on after reaching a nuclear deal in 2015. AFP, pool, FILE .Show less

Iran is not seeking a war with the US, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told President Donald Trump in a Tweet on Thursday, but he said Tehran will defend itself if needed.

US intelligence officials said that there are indications that Iran is planning an attack on American interests and allies in Iraq to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the killing of Quds Force head, Qassem Suleimani, on January 3.

The US flew B-52 strategic bombers through the Arabian Gulf several times in the past month as a deterrence and returned or deployed aircraft carriers and submarines to the region.

A year of tensions – in pictures 

An exhibition, calling for an end to executions in Iran, in Trafalgar Square on October 10, 2020 in London, England. The exhibition, held by Anglo-Iranian communities in the UK, marked the World Day against the Death Penalty. Getty Images

Qassem Suleimani, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General and commander of the Quds Force. A US strike killed the top Iranian commander and the deputy head of Iraq's PMU military force at Baghdad's airport early on January 3, 2019. AFP

A destroyed vehicle on fire following a US strike on January 3, 2020 on Baghdad international airport road in which top Iranian commander Qassem Suleimani was killed along with eight others, including the deputy head of Iraq's powerful PMU paramilitary force. AFP

Iranian people attend a funeral procession for Iranian Major-General Qassem Suleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Tehran, Iran January 6, 2020. Reuters

Mourners attend a funeral ceremony for Iranian General Qassem Suleimani. The processions mark the first time Iran honoured a single man with a multi-city ceremony. Not even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic, received such a processional with his death in 1989. AP

Rockets launched from Iran against the US military base in Ein-al Asad in Iraq, on January 8, 2020, days after the General Qassem Suleimani was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad. EPA

The manoeuvres, Mr Zarif said on Thursday, were a waste of money and the precursor to fabricated reasons for war by Washington.

"Instead of fighting Covid in US, Donald Trump and cohorts waste billions to fly B52s and send armadas to our region. Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to fabricate pretext for war,” he tweeted.

“Iran doesn't seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests,” he said.

Suleimani was killed in a drone strike near Baghdad airport last January alongside Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, deputy commander of the Iran-backed Iraqi militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, and eight others.

The US embassy in Baghdad withdrew non-essential staff last year and in recent weeks slimmed down personnel numbers further in what a top Iraqi official said was a temporary step driven by "security reservations".

It could also be a harbinger of more US military action to come, Iraqi and western officials told AFP.

"The US would need to get its staff out before it acts, so that they wouldn't be targeted in any possible retaliation," one western diplomat said.

Mr Trump directly addressed the tensions. He said the US was hearing "chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq" and warned that "if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over".