TEHRAN- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that President Donald Trump will see the negative consequences of his adventurism in the region, noting that the Iraqi parliament’s vote to expel U.S. troops from the country is the beginning of the end of the U.S. in the Middle East. 

Araghchi, who had participated in the funeral ceremony for IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in Tehran, also said the U.S. threats against the Iranian people is not a new matter. 

Soleimani was martyred in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday morning.

According to the Pentagon, General Soleimani was assassinated on Donald Trump’s order.

The U.S. airstrike also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU).

“Trump will see the consequences of his adventurism in the region. It started on Sunday after the Iraqi parliament voted on expel of U.S. forces from the country. This path will continue to complete exit of U.S. forces from the region. Even many Western countries believe that the unwise measure carried out by the U.S. can be considered as a beginning for termination of the American presence in the region,” Araghchi underscored.  

Trump doubles down on rhetoric to strike Iran cultural sites

U.S. President Donald Trump has doubled down on his threat to strike Iranian cultural heritage sites, asserting to a group of reporters that the United States has the right to bomb such targets.

Talking to reporters on Sunday in the White House, Trump dismissed criticism from human rights organizations pointing out that such an action would be considered a war crime under international law.

"They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way," Trump said, according to Press TV.

On Saturday, Trump claimed that his military would hit “very important” targets, including cultural heritage sites if the Iranians want to take retaliatory action against the assassination of General Soleimani.

“We have ... targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran” said Trump in a tweet while making a reference to the occupation of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.

The threat came after Iranian authorities vowed vengeance for the U.S. assassination of General Soleimani.

Many inside the U.S. and across the world have criticized Trump for ordering the deadly airstrike, saying the move could lead to a major conflict in the Middle East.

Trump’s threat to strike 52 important targets in Iran has provoked a strong backlash, with many calling it a “war crime.”

U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden blasted Trump's tweets on Iran as "incredibly dangerous and irresponsible".

"When he makes statements like that, it just seems to me to be he's going off on a tweetstorm on his own, and it's incredibly dangerous and irresponsible," Biden told reporters.

"I have no idea whether he's coordinated with any of our allies. I have no idea whether or not he has the support of his own generals," the former vice president added. "This is a guy who seems to be unmoored."

On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also took to his official Twitter account to remind Trump that although “barbarians have come and ravaged our cities, razed our monuments and burnt our libraries” throughout history, but Iranians “still stand tall”.

Zarif also drew an analogy between Trump's assertions and Daesh’s crimes in destroying the cultural heritage of some regional countries, noting that the U.S. president was “hallucinating about emulating ISIS war crimes by targeting our cultural heritage.”

"Having committed grave breaches of int'l law in Friday's cowardly assassinations, @realdonaldtrump threatens to commit again new breaches of JUS COGENS," Zarif tweeted. "Targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME."

MJ/PA