Targeting cultural sites a 'war crime', after Trump threat, FM Zarif says

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has described U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to attack dozens of Iranian sites as a "war crime" amid rising tensions in the wake of the killing of a senior Iranian general by an American airstrike.

"Targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME," Zarif said on Twitter on Sunday, shortly after Trump threatened to strike 52 Iranian sites in the event of any attacks on U.S. citizens of assets.

"Whether kicking or screaming, end of U.S. malign presence in West Asia has begun," Zarif said.

Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force, was killed in a U.S. drone airstrike in Iraq on Friday.

Soleimani's death marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since Trump chose in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw Washington from a 2015 nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who gave Soleimani the country's highest honor last year, vowed "severe retaliation" in response to his killing.

The Pentagon accused Soleimani of plotting the embassy attack and planning to carry out additional attacks on U.S. diplomats and service members in Iraq and the region.