Top Iran-General Warns Trump: ‘If You Begin the War, We’ll End It’

TEHRAN --Major General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, made the chilling warning to the US President Donald Trump in the wake of rising tensions between Iran and the US saying that "we are a nation of martyrdom and that we await him."

"We are near you, where you can't even imagine ... Come. We are ready. If you begin the war, we will end the war," Tasnim news agency quoted Soleimani as saying.

General Soleimani said that Donald Trump should address any threats against Tehran directly to him, and mocked the US president as using the language of "night clubs and gambling halls".

"As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to Trump's threats. If he wants to use the language of threat, he should talk to me, not to the president [Hassan Rowhani]," Soleimani said.

"It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you. I, as a soldier, respond to you," Soleimani further said.

Soleimani's message was in essence a warning to the US to stop threatening Iran with war or risk exposing itself to an Iranian response.

Trump tweet came after President Rouhani warned the US against its hostile approach against Iran, saying America should know that peace with Iran will be the mother of all peace while war with the country will be the mother of all wars.

On Sunday night, Trump said in a tweet directed at Rowhani: "Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. Be cautious!"

Addressing Trump, the commander Soleimani said, "You threaten us with an action that is 'unprecedented' in the world. This is cabaret-style rhetoric. Only a cabaret owner talks to the World this way."

"We are near you, where you can't even imagine. We are the nation of martyrdom, we are the nation of Imam Hussain, you better ask. Come; we are ready. We are the man of this arena. You know that this war would mean annihilation of all your means. You may begin the war, but it is us who will end it," he said.

Fanning the heightened tensions, US national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement on Monday: "President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before."

Bolton is a proponent of interventionist foreign policy and was US ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of George W. Bush during the Iraq war.Soleimani said, "You already did all you could!"

Top general widely believed to be the architect of Iranian operations abroad including in Iraq and Syria further reminded the United States of its failures in its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"What was it that you could do over the past 20 years but you didn't? You came to Afghanistan with scores of tanks and personnel carriers and hundreds of advanced helicopters and committed crimes there. What the hell could you do between 2001 and 2018 with 110,000 troops? You are today begging Taliban for talks," Major General Soleimani said.

The Iranian commander added, "Afghanistan was a poor country, what the hell could you do in this country that you are currently threatening us?"

"You arrogantly attacked Iraq with 160,000 troops and multiple times [military equipment] compared to what you used in Afghanistan, but what happened? Ask your then commander who was the person that he sent to me and asked 'Is is possible for you to give us time [and] use your influence so that our soldiers would not be attacked by the Iraqi fighters in these few months  until we exit this country?' Have you forgotten that you provided adult diapers for your soldiers in tanks? Despite that you are currently threatening the great country of Iran? With what background do you threaten [us]?"

In Yemen, Soleimani said, the US-backed coalition of Saudi Arabia and its allies has been incapable of making any gains against the country's Houthi Ansarullah movement, which is both running state affairs and defending the nation against the Riyadh-led aggression.

"A mere organization is standing against you in Yemen, but it has emerged victorious in the face of the most advanced of your military equipment. What have you achieved over the past four years? You stripped the Red Sea - which used to be a safe sea - of security. You brought under fire Saudi Arabia and [its capital] Riyadh - which had not seen a single rocket fired at them for 100 years."

The senior general further warned Trump against insulting the Iranian nation and president.

"Trump! You must not threaten our nation and must not insult our president... You must know what you are talking about; ask your predecessors and take advantage of their experiences," General Soleimani emphasized.

The senior military official also censured the US for supporting the most hated anti-Iran terror group, called the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), saying Washington failed to achieve anything by doing so.

The commander of the IRGC's Quds Force said, "America had some grandeur in the past [and] when its fleet moved out, a nation fell apart. Have you now become attached to the Monafeqeen, who have been thrown in the trash bin of Iran's history? You have become attached to a vagrant woman, and show her in all [your News] networks; is your hope pinned on this? Is this all your power? You are aware of our power in the region and capability for [launching] asymmetrical war?"