Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the White House has become “mentally crippled” in a live televised address today.
In the latest trade of blows between Washington and Tehran, Rouhani slammed US President Donald Trump’s latest sanctions on senior Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as “outrageous and idiotic.”
Rouhani said: “You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks?”
Zarif also made his views known on the latest wave of sanctions.
He tweeted: “Donald Trump is 100% right that the US military has no business in the Persian Gulf. Removal of its forces is fully in line with interests of US and the world. But it’s now clear that the B team is not concerned with US interests—they despise diplomacy, and thirst for war.”
President Trump described the latest sanctions as “a strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative actions.”
This comes after Iranian forces shot down a US military drone, and President Trump claimed he called off a retaliation to “spare lives.”
The US last week blamed Iran of attacking oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, an accusation they have denied.
***
US President Donald Trump has threatened ‘obliteration’ in response to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s ‘ignorant and insulting’ statement today.
In a Twitter rant, Trump said: “Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality. Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry and Obama!”
He also accused Iran of killing Americans with IEDs and spending money on terrorism, and went on to point out the size of the US military.
The president continued: “Iran leadership doesn’t understand the words ‘nice’ or ‘compassion,’ they never have. Sadly, the thing they do understand is Strength and Power, and the USA is by far the most powerful Military Force in the world, with 1.5 trillion dollars invested over the last two years alone.”
Updated 9:33 am PT: translation of President Rouhani’s remarks have been edited to more accurately reflect his comments
#Rouhani’s words in Persian translates to “the White House has become mentally disabled” Very different from the translation I see popping up all morning that says “#Iran’s President said #Trump is retarded” Also there is another word in Persian for retarded that he didn’t use.
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) June 25, 2019
