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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. is prepared to act against Iran if it retaliates for the killing of one of its top military leaders, but he pulled back on a threat to target the country’s cultural sites.
“If that’s what the law is, I like to obey the law,” Trump told reporters.
Trump made his comments as he sat alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the Oval Office after saying on Sunday Iran was “allowed to kill our people. … And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way.”
An attack on cultural sites would likely be illegal under the laws of armed conflict and the United Nations charter, as the Associated Press has reported.
Trump, meanwhile, didn’t let up on a threat to strike other Iranian targets if Tehran takes action the U.S. deems provocative.
“I will say this, if Iran does anything that they shouldn’t be doing, they’re going to be suffering the consequences and very strongly,” Trump said.
The S&P 500 index
SPX, -0.28%
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, -0.42%
moved lower Tuesday, and U.S. benchmark oil futures
CLG20, +0.75%
settled down by 0.9% at $62.70 a barrel, pulling back following a jump in prices that had been prompted by fears that the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani would immediately stoke fresh conflict in the Middle East.
Now read: Oil prices register first loss in 4 sessions as worries about the Mideast ease
Source : MTV
