‘Obliteration’ threat
Trump’s warning after sanctions labelled ‘mentally retarded’
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has threatened to obliterate parts of Iran if it attacked “anything American” after Tehran said the latest US sanctions had scuttled any chance of diplomacy, calling White House actions “mentally retarded”.
Mr Trump on Monday signed an executive order imposing sanctions against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior figures, with punitive measures against Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expected later this week.
The moves came after Iran shot down a US drone on June 20 and Mr Trump called off a retaliatory air strike, saying too many people would have been killed.
On Tuesday, however, Mr Trump tweeted: “Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration.”
Shortly before, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said imposing “useless sanctions” on Mr Khamenei and Mr Zarif would mark “the permanent closure of the path of diplomacy”.
He added in a tweet: “Trump’s desperate administration is destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security.”
In a televised address on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the new sanctions against Mr Khamenei would have no practical impact because the top cleric had no assets abroad.
Mr Rouhani said the White House’s actions were “mentally retarded” – an insult other Iranian officials have used about Mr Trump but a departure from Mr Rouhani’s own measured tone over the years.
Mr Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, visiting Israel, repeated earlier offers to hold talks, as long as Iran was willing to go beyond the terms of the 2015 deal.
“The President has held the door open to real negotiations to completely and verifiably eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons program (and) its pursuit of ballistic missile delivery systems,” Mr Bolton said in Jerusalem.
Iran says there is no point negotiating with Washington when it has abandoned a deal that was already reached.