Iranian Speaker Blasts Trump, Pompeo as "Charlatans"

Rasa - Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani lambasted US President Donald Trump and Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo for their "cheap" rhetoric against Iran, calling the two as "charlatans and corrupt".

News ID: 438811

Date: 25 July 2018 - 21:45

RNA - "The remarks made by Trump were not diplomatic at all. We do not answer any cheap comments," Larijani said, addressing an open session of the parliament in Tehran on Tuesday.

He also rapped Pompeo's recent remarks and allegations against Iran, and said, "He and his boss are infamous for corruption and they are charlatans. They are also infamous on the international scene."

Larijani added that the US is today known for its diplomatic irregularities and it is pursuing barbarism and ignorance in diplomacy.

In relevant remarks on Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry deplored Pompeo's "interfering and baseless" remarks against the country, stressing that the people of Iran will respond to them with their solidarity.

"The hypocritical and cheap remarks by the US secretary of state, which were merely used as a tool and propaganda (against Iran), showed more than ever the US administration's unlimited desperateness in the situation that has been created after its illegal withdrawal from the (2015) nuclear deal and failure in attaining its goal of this unilateral and unwise move and the consequent global isolation," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said after Pompeo's remarks in a gathering of Iranian expatriates in California.

"Such comments are clearly an instance of the US blatant interference in Iran's internal affairs and precisely in line with the US age-old destabilizing and destructive policies in the region which run counter to international undertakings," he added.

Qassemi said that the Iranian nation does not value the remarks by the US officials who have been considered as untrustworthy even by their own friends and allies and will respond to them with their exemplary solidarity.

Trump and his Iranian counterpart President Hassan Rouhani traded hostile warnings last week, amid rising tensions between the two countries.

Trump tweeted that Iran "will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before" if it threatened the US.

According to Fars News Agancy, President Rouhani earlier warned his US counterpart against the unbearable costs and dire consequences of blocking Iran's oil exports, saying belligerency against Iran would the "mother of wars".

"The regional states are either afraid of the US or do not trust it. Anyone who understands politics a little bit would never say that he/she would prevent exports of Iran's oil. We have many Straits. The Strait of Hormuz is just one of them," President Rouhani said, addressing the Iranian ambassadors to foreign states in Tehran on Sunday, repeating his earlier tacit threat that Tehran would close off the Strait of Hormuz in response to any move by the US to zero its crude supplies.

He stressed that Iran has been the guarantor of security in the Strait of Hormuz all throughout the history, saying, "Mr. Trump! Do not twist the lion's tail because you will regret. You are not able to provoke the Iranian nation against Iran's security and interests."

"The Americans should come to realize this point well that peace with Iran would be the mother of all peaces and war with Iran would be the mother of all wars. We do not quiver from threats and we have a deterrent power. Today our internal unity is more than before, threats make us more coherent and we will definitely beat the US," Rouhani said, and added, "We would sustain costs, but will earn greater interests."

President Rouhani underscored that the new conditions created after the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal is an opportunity for relations with the world, exports and home-made production, saying, "Today, talks with the US has no other meaning but surrendering and putting an end to the Iranian nation's achievements. If we surrender to a liar bullying person like Trump, they will plunder Iran."

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