'It's pathetic': Interview emerges of Donald Trump predicting Barack Obama would go to war with Iran to get re-elected

Luke O'Reilly3 January 2020

A 2011 video has resurfaced of Donald Trump saying Barack Obama would go to war with Iran to get re-elected and calling it "pathetic".

It comes after General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Tehran's elite Quds Force, was killed in a drone strike ordered by the US president at Baghdad's international airport on Friday.

The US Defence Department said General Soleimani was targeted because he was "actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members" in the region.

While Trump has long been a critic of US foreign policy in relation to Iran, he has also warned against going to war with the middle eastern country.

General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Tehran's elite Quds Force, was killed in a drone strike
AFP via Getty Images

In October 2012, Mr Trump tweeted: "Don't let Obama play the Iran card in order to start a war in order to get elected--be careful Republicans!"

As well as this, he gave an interview in 2011 where he predicted Mr Obama would go to war against Iran in an attempt to get re-elected.

President Trump said: "Our president will start a war with Iran because he had absolutely no ability to negotiate. He's weak and he's ineffective.

"We have a real problem in the White House. So I believe he will attack Iran sometime prior to the election because he thinks that's the only way he can get elected.

"Isn't it pathetic?"

Trump warning against Barack Obama using war with Iran as a pretext to being re-elected
AFP via Getty Images

Following Soleimani's death, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that "severe revenge awaits the criminals" behind the strike and announced three days of national mourning.

The Foreign Office advised British-Iranian dual nationals against all travel to Iran and for other British nationals to seek the department's advice before travelling to the nation.

British nationals risk being arbitrarily detained or arrested by Tehran, the department warns.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been among the dual nationals being held in Iran since she was arrested in 2016 and accused of spying while visiting family.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "I sit here partly worried for what that means for Nazanin, partly worried what that means for my in-laws, sat in their ordinary living room in Tehran where they're all really worried."

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