US will suffer same fate as Saddam Hussein if it attacks Iran, IRGC warns

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday warned the United States that it would face the same fate as former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein if it attacked Iran.

“The American leaders…have got this message that if they attack Iran, they will encounter a fate similar to that of Saddam Hussein,” the IRGC said in a statement, according to a Reuters report.

The US labeled the IRGC as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) on Oct. 13, 2017.

The group’s statement follows remarks made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday regarding Washington’s new strategy on Iran, which included imposing “the strongest sanctions in history” on Tehran if it does not comply with demands to end its nuclear program.

During his speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, Secretary Pompeo said Iran “has lied for years” about its nuclear weapons capabilities even though it was a signatory in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal.

The pact was signed in 2015 under the Obama administration and was meant to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

However, President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that the US would withdraw from the agreement and threatened new sanctions on the Iranian government.

Pompeo also said, during his remarks on Monday, that Iran continues to be the largest state-sponsor of terror, including a co-conspirator for al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban.

His call on Iran to remove all forces under its command in Syria prompted a reaction from Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad who said the withdrawal of Iranian troops was not up for discussion.

“Whether Iranian forces or Hezbollah withdraw or stay in Syria is not up for discussion because it’s the [business] of the Syrian government,” Mekdad said in an interview with Russia’s Sputnik state news agency.

Iranian ground forces and its allied militias, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, have supported President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s seven-year-long civil war which has killed over 500,000 people.