As sanctions loom, US-Iran war of words escalates
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s aides and Iranian government officials echoed their presidents’ threats Monday, as observers wondered whether Trump is seeking a confrontation with Iran or trying to change the subject politically.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders described Trump’s near-midnight tweet Sunday as a response to an Iranian threat and said that “if anybody’s inciting anything, look no further than to Iran.”
Ayatollah Amoli Larijani, Iran’s chief judiciary official, said the U.S. needed to know that if it attacked Iran, it would “receive a response that would be written in history,” according to comments carried by IRNA, a state-run news agency.
Larijani said Trump’s remarks were not unexpected from a “foolish person like Trump.”
John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, said he has spoken with Trump for “several days” about Iran, and the president “told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price that few countries have ever paid before.”
Foreign policy analysts wondered whether Trump was looking to move past a spate of recent political troubles, including fallout from last week’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, or is serious about confronting Iran.
As Washington prepared to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran after the president’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord, Trump ratcheted up tensions late Sunday night with a stark tweet written in all capital letters.
“NEVER EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKE OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,” Trump wrote.
Trump was responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said earlier in the day that “American(s) must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.” He cautioned Trump to stop “playing with the lion’s tail or else you will regret it.”
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May despite objections from China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. The deal was intended to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Trump ordered increased American sanctions after the original sanctions had been suspended as part of the accord. The first part of the sanctions – affecting Iran’s access to U.S. dollars, its trade in gold and other commodities, and its car industry – will snap back Aug. 4. Sanctions on Iran’s oil industry will be reimposed in November.
Rouhani, a moderate in Iran’s theocracy that is ruled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has previously lashed out against Trump for threatening to reimpose the sanctions, for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and for banning travel to the U.S. from certain Muslim-majority countries.
Trump has suggested that because of Iran’s poor economy and what he has characterized as its increasing isolation, Iranian leaders are “going to call me and say ‘let’s make a deal.’ ” Iran has rejected talks. Some noted that Trump’s threat to Iran came in a single tweet, amid a series of posts defending his meeting with Putin and repeatedly calling for an end to the special counsel investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election on Trump’s behalf.
“He’s venting,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for presidents of both parties. “He wants to appear tough, and he wants to change the channel.”
Ned Price, a special assistant for national security during the Obama administration, said that “as with all things Trump, it’s impossible to know whether this is the result of strategy or impulsiveness.”