Iran vows retaliation after U.S. strikes on nuclear sites; Trump claims success
Iran sent a communiqué to Trump in the days before last night’s strikes on its nuclear facilities threatening to activate sleeper-cell terror inside the United States if it were attacked, sources said.
The message got to Trump through an intermediary at the Group of Seven summit in Canada last week, which Trump left early June 16 to consider his options amid the conflict between Israel and Iran, according to sources who include two U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the threat.
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and the Iranian Mission to the United Nations declined to comment.
Trump vowed yesterday on social media that any Iranian retaliation against the United States “WILL BE MET WITH FORCE FAR GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT.”
His administration, as well as law enforcement agencies in key cities, are on high alert for any potential retaliation inside the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security warned in a statement today that the “Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States.”
The statement said there could be an increased possibility of terrorist attacks in the U.S. homeland, particularly “if Iranian leadership issued a religious ruling calling for retaliatory violence against targets in the Homeland.” It also said Iran could launch cyberattacks on U.S. networks and target current and former U.S. government officials whom Tehran blames for the 2020 assassination of the top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani.
Iran has struggled to stage operations in the United States in the past.
Vice President JD Vance said today on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the administration is looking at the possibility of a homeland attack “very closely,” and he expressed confidence that law enforcement can handle the threat.
One point of concern, he said, is a lack of “full accounting” of those who may have entered the country during President Joe Biden’s term without proper vetting. “We know that some of those people were on terrorism watch lists,” Vance said.
A European diplomat working on the Iran issue said the United States and its allies also believe Iran has the capability to attack European and American nationals beyond U.S. soil and beyond the Middle East.