CIA: We will hold Iran responsible for attacks on our interests in Iraq

CIA Director Mike Pompeo said he sent a letter to Iran's top military official warning him that the US would hold Tehran responsible for any attack on US interests in Iraq.

Pompeo, who previously expressed strong opposition to Iran, specified that he sent the letter to General Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the elite unit within that force that is in charge of operations outside Iran's territory, but that the general did not read it, reports today AP.

"I sent the letter because he (the general) has indicated that the forces under his control could actually threaten US interests in Iraq," Pompeo said at a defense forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in California.

Pompeo stated that the Iranian general refused to open the letter, but that, as he said, "did not break his heart."

"We made it clear to him in the letter that we would hold him and Iran accountable ... and we wanted to make sure that he and the leadership of Iran understood that in a crystal clear way," the CIA director explained.