Shamkhani:

No substantive change in US rhetoric on Iran

Rasa - A senior Iranian official says the rhetoric of the US administration of President Donald Trump on the Islamic Republic is substantively no different from that of the former officials in Washington.

News ID: 427538

Date: 20 February 2017 - 23:09

RNA - “There has been no substantive shift in the rhetoric of the new US officials [in comparison with] the previous [ones] and various figures and parties in the country have always maintained an aggressive approach toward independent countries,” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani told reporters on Monday.

He added that the fact-based admissions by President Trump about the chaotic situation in the West and the United States are a new issue which had never been publicly acknowledged by other US leaders.

Such confessions show that Washington can no more cover up the tumultuous and confused situation in the US, the top Iranian official emphasized.

“Although it is still early to make a definitive judgment about the new US administration, the current trend shows that there will be no change in the chaotic situation of the country in the new era either,” the SNSC secretary pointed out.

The new US Republican president, who took office in January, has repeatedly echoed the same warnings made by former President George W. Bush who on several occasions said he would not take the military option against Iran off the table.

Former President Barack Obama also threatened military action against Iran before the nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers in 2015.

Trump said on February 2 that "nothing is off the table" in terms of a response to a recent ballistic missile test by Iran.

Iranian officials have always dismissed such statements as foreign meddling in the country's domestic affairs, saying that the missile tests were the nation’s inalienable right to self-defense. Iran has also vowed a crushing response to any military attack against it.

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