Iranian MP's 'attack the White House' threat after Trump warning

Tehran has threatened severe retaliation in response and the US president has said the country would strike "very fast and hard" if there were attacks on Americans or US assets.

Amid escalating tension between the two countries, hardline Iranian MP Abolfazl Aboutorabi told an open session of the Iranian Parliament: "We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. ‘We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time."

Mr Abutorabi went on to say the Iranians "should crush America's teeth" during an impassioned speech before Parliament.

He went on to say that this was a "declaration of war", adding: "When someone declares war, do you want to respond to the bullets with flowers? They will shoot you in the head."

Other more senior Iranian officials sought to place limits on any response.

“We have zero problems with the American people,” Hesameddin Ashena, an adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, wrote on Twitter. “We even achieved deals with previous US administrations. Our sole problem is Trump. In the event of war, it is he who will bear full responsibility.”

Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei added: "Without any doubt, the blood of Gen Soleimani will be retaliated and the Americans will be hit from the point where they cannot imagine."

It comes after Iraqi MPs passed a resolution calling for foreign troops to leave the country.

The parliament also called for a formal complaint to be made at the UN about US "violations" of Iraqi sovereignty.

Some 5,000 US soldiers are in Iraq as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group.

The alliance paused operations against IS in Iraq just before Sunday's vote.

The majority of about 180 legislators present in Parliament voted in favour of the resolution, which is not binding on the government.

The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani told the Iraqi president Barham Salih in a phone call that the move to approve the withdrawal of US troops was the start of greater stability and security in the region. He said: "It is necessary to stand firm for the security, sovereignty and protection of the noble Iraqi people and the Iranian nation and government will certainly defend the sovereignty of Iraq.

"We must act in such a way that enemies know they cannot interfere with the relations of two nations."

Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist Movement in Iraq called the US embassy in Baghdad "the embassy of evil" and called for an immediate closure.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of mourners have accompanied a casket carrying the remains of the General Soleimani through two major Iranian cities.

It came as part of a grand funeral procession for the commander killed by an American drone strike.

An honour guard stood by early on Sunday as mourners carried the flag-draped coffins of General Soleimani and other Guard members off the Tarmac.

The caskets then moved slowly through streets choked with mourners wearing black, beating their chests and carrying posters with General Soleimani’s portrait.

Demonstrators also carried red Shi’ite flags, which traditionally both symbolise the spilled blood of someone unjustly killed and call for their deaths to be avenged.

Officials brought General Soleimani’s body to Ahvaz, a city that was a focus of fighting during the bloody 1980-88 war between Iraq and Iran, in which he slowly grew to prominence.

After that war, General Soleimani joined the Guard’s newly formed Quds, or Jersualem, Force, an expeditionary force that works with Iranian proxy forces in countries like Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

Authorities then took General Soleimani’s body to Mashhad.

His remains will go to Tehran and Qom on Monday for public mourning processions, followed by his hometown of Kerman for burial on Tuesday.

This marks the first time Iran honoured a single man with a multi-city ceremony.

General Soleimani will lie in state at Tehran’s Musalla mosque on Monday.

Iranian officials planned to meet on Sunday night to discuss taking a fifth step away from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, one that could be even greater than planned, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.

In unusually specific language, Mr Trump tweeted that his administration had already targeted 52 Iranian sites, “some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.”

He linked the number of sites to the number of hostages, also 52, held by Iran for nearly 15 months after protesters overran the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Mr Trump appeared to respond to Iranian threats with tweets justifying Soleimani’s killing and matching the bellicose language from Iran.

“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American and badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,” the president tweeted.

“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years.”

Mr Trump also warned: “The USA wants no more threats!”

US President Donald Trump's stark warning to Iran came in a series of tweets as the White House sent to Congress a formal notification under the War Powers Act of the drone strike on Mr Soleimani.

US law requires notification within 48 hours of the introduction of American forces into an armed conflict or a situation that could lead to war..

The notification document sent to congressional leadership, the House speaker and the Senate president was entirely classified, according to a senior Democratic aide and a congressional aide.

In a statement, Ms Pelosi said the “highly unusual” decision to classify the document compounds concerns from Congress.

“This document prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran,” she said.

Ms Pelosi said the Trump administration’s “provocative, escalatory and disproportionate military engagement continues to put service members, diplomats and citizens of America and our allies in danger.”

She called on the administration “for an immediate, comprehensive briefing of the full Congress on military engagement related to Iran and next steps under consideration.”

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to Mr Trump’s threats, saying they were a breach of international law.

Mr Zarif tweeted: “Having committed grave breaches of int’l law in Friday’s cowardly assassinations, @realdonaldtrump threatens to commit again new breaches of jus cogens; -Targeting cultural sites is a war crime; -Whether kicking or screaming, end of US malign presence in West Asia has begun.

“Those masquerading as diplomats and those who shamelessly sat to identify Iranian cultural & civilian targets should not even bother to open a law dictionary.

“Jus cogens refers to peremptory norms of international law, i.e. international red lines. That is, a big(ly) ‘no no’.”

Meanwhile the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia separately warned Americans “of the heightened risk of missile and drone attacks.”

And Iran has vowed to take an even-greater step away from its unravelling nuclear deal with world powers as a response to General Soleimani’s death.

READ MORE: Iranian leader warns of 'severe revenge' after general was killed by US air strike

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said on Sunday that America’s military in the Middle East region - including US bases, warships and soldiers - are fair targets following the killing of Iran’s top general.

Hassan Nasrallah said evicting US military forces from the region is now a priority.

“The suicide attackers who forced the Americans to leave from our region in the past are still here and their numbers have increased,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

In London, more than 100 people gathered outside the US embassy to protest against the assassination.

Waving Iranian and Iraqi flags, the protesters chanted: "Donald Trump - terrorist" and labelled the US a "terror state".

The demo was organised by The Union Of Islamic Student Association In Europe following Friday's air strike in Baghdad, which killed the head of Iran's Quds Force.

As well as Donald Trump, the chants were aimed at Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who were accused of "standing for terrorism".