Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards' General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone attack last week in Iraq, was plotting to kill American diplomats by attacking US facilities, a top national security advisor to President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.
"He was plotting to attack American facilities and diplomats, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were located at those facilities, correct," National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
However, with the killing of Soleimani, the threat against the US has not gone, he asserted. "As long as there are bad actors in the world there are always threats to Americans and the Iranians have been making many, many threats to the US over the past several days,” he said in response to a question.
"We take those seriously and we are watching and monitoring them. We hope and we have sent a message that that will not be well received. I mean the president has been very clear in his message and we hope that they are deterred and that they think twice about attacking America and its interest," O’Brien said.
He, however, refused to divulge the details of the alleged threat and plot by Soleimani. "I don't know if we are going to be able to do that or not because we don't want to put our sources and methods at risk... I can tell you that the evidence was strong,” he said.
The Iranians, he said, have been making threats publicly every day since the president authorized this military operation. He said the US takes those threats very seriously. "We are going to monitor them and the State Department has made appropriate warnings to Americans who are in the region," he said.
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