Iran leader warns Trump not to isolate America over nuke deal
WASHINGTON — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at President Donald Trump, charging that U.S. opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal has only united all Iranians and brought sympathy toward Tehran from Europe.
Speaking at a meeting of his cabinet, Mr. Rouhani warned Mr. Trump against taking such “hostile action,” and suggested that even if the United States pulls out, Iran will uphold its side of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, if it serves Iranian interests through continued economic ties with Europe, according to translated excerpts obtained by McClatchy.
“Today, those who support and oppose the JCPOA are united with a single voice,” Mr. Rouhani said Wednesday. “We consider violation of a commitment wrong and treacherous against the interests of our country, the region and the world.”
Mr. Trump was expected to “decertify” the Iran nuclear deal soon, declaring the Obama-era pact not in U.S. interests and launching a congressional review of the agreement. Mr. Trump has argued that Iran has not lived up to the spirit of the pact and charged Tehran with supporting terrorism and exporting violence.
“The president has reached a decision on an overall Iran strategy and wants to make sure we have a broad policy to deal with that, not just one part of it, to deal with all of the problems of Iran being a bad actor,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday.
But Mr. Trump has received little support from the other five world powers involved in the pact that lifted crippling economic sanctions on the Iranian regime in return for restrictions on nuclear activities.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom phoned Mr. Trump to urge him to reconsider, calling the agreement “vital for regional security.” France and Germany — also signers — also have pressured the WhiteHouse to remain.
Decertifying the deal doesn’t end the agreement, but is seen as the first step toward a full dismantling as it kicks the issue to Congress for debate over whether to reinstitute previous sanctions.
Cuba’s dangerous sound?
It sounds sort of like a mass of crickets. A highpitched whine, but from what? It seems to undulate, even writhe. There are multiple, distinct tones that sound to some like they’re colliding in a nails-on-the-chalkboard effect.
The Associated Press has obtained a recording of what some U.S. Embassy workers heard in Havana in a series of unnerving incidents later deemed to be deliberate attacks.
The recording, released Thursday by the AP, is the first disseminated publicly of the many taken in Cuba of mysterious sounds that led investigators initially to suspect a sonic weapon.
What device produced the original sound remains unknown. Americans affected in Havana reported the sounds hit them at extreme volumes.
Whether there’s a direct relationship between the sound and the physical damage suffered by the victims is also unclear.
The U.S. says that in general the attacks caused hearing, cognitive, visual, balance, sleep and other problems.
Lethal roadside bomb
A roadside bomb that killed an American soldier in Iraq earlier this month was of a particularly lethal design not seen in six years, and its reappearance on the battlefield suggests that U.S. troops could again be facing a threat that bedeviled them at the height of the insurgency here, U.S. military officials said.