Iran has fired back after President Donald Trump on Friday decertified the landmark Iran nuclear deal, which was forged by Iran and the Obama Administration in 2015.
“Mr. Trump’s remarks on Iran […] contained nothing but expletives and a pile of delusional allegations against the Iranian nation,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Friday, according to state media, the Washington Examiner reported. “He apparently does not know that this is not a bilateral document between Iran and the U.S. for him to act in any way he wishes.”
Rouhani also said Trump’s remarks were “abusive” and “downright wrong” when he spoke on TV about the speech.
Iran (Twitter)
Trump has called the deal “one of the worst” and “the most one-sided transaction the United States has ever entered into,” and he reiterated his sentiments on Friday – he said the “rogue regime” of Iran is only perpetuating terrorism around the world, and is becoming more aggressive in doing so.
President Trump announced Friday that the U.S. will not certify the Iran nuclear deal, and it is now up to Congress to address the deal’s “serious flaws” in order to protect the American people from any threats of nuclear weapons.
“We cannot and will not make this certification. We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the breakout of Iran’s nuclear program,” Trump said Friday.
Trump said if Congress can’t reach a solution, then the Iran nuclear agreement would be “terminated.”
“It’s under continuous review,” Trump said, of the deal. “Our participation can be cancelled by me, the President, at any time. We are determined that the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism will not obtain nuclear weapons.” This would include any potential intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the President stressed, adding that with Congress at the wheel, the goal is to make “all restrictions on Iran’s nuclear deal permanent under United States law.”
The hostile Iranian regime has not lived up to “the spirit of deal,” which Trump called “deeply controversial.”
“The Iranian dictatorship […] remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” the President said, saying the regime provides assistance to al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorists.
As for the 2015 deal, Trump said: “We got weak inspections in exchange for no more than a purely short-term, temporary delay for Iran on its path toward nuclear weapons.”
“The Iran deal was supposed to contribute to regional and international peace and security. And yet, while the United States adheres to our commitment under the deal, the Iranian regime continues to fuel conflict, terror and turmoil throughout the Middle East and beyond,” the President said.
Additionally, along with pushing the deal back to Congress, the President said he has authorized the U.S. Treasury to impose sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which he called a “corrupt personal terror force.”
Iranian officials expressed their displeasure with Trump’s statements.
“[Trump] has to study history better and more closely and know what they [U.S. officials] have done to the Iranian people over the past sixty-something years and how they have treated the people of Iran during the past 40 years after the victory of the Revolution [in 1979],” Rouhani said, the Examiner reported.
And, Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani, a senior Iranian cleric: “The U.S. has always tried to bring the Islamic Republic to its knee throughout the history and the Iranian nation would never forget their animosity,” the Examiner reported.
During his speech last month at the United Nations General Assembly, Trump accused Iran of funding terrorists and creating a dangerous missile arsenal. The Iranian President later came out and said flatly that Iran wants to strengthen its missile capabilities – and doesn’t intend to ask permission to do it.
The Iranian nuclear deal was drawn up in 2015 with Iran, the U.S. and five other nations. Its framework includes stipulations that Iran would redesign, convert and reduce its number of nuclear facilities in order to lift nuclear-related economical sanctions, which would reportedly free up billions of dollars in oil revenue and frozen assets for Iran. The U.S. and Iran also agreed to their own terms, along with terms penned with other nations.
