Trump slams Iran on terror
WASHINGTON, Feb 6, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced during the annual State of the Union (SOTU) address, the date with the upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jon Un and asserted that his “administration has acted decisively to confront” Iran that he described as “the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.”
In the address, the US President said that “one of the most complex set of challenges we face is in the Middle East.”
Trump asserted that his administration “has acted decisively to confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran.”
“To ensure this corrupt dictatorship never acquires nuclear weapons, I withdrew the United States from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal. And last fall, we put in place the toughest sanctions ever imposed on a country,” he added.
“We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people,” he pledged.
As for the US military presence in the Middle East and its heavy cost, he said, “our brave troops have now been fighting in the Middle East for almost 19 years. In Afghanistan and Iraq, nearly 7,000 American heroes have given their lives. More than 52,000 Americans have been badly wounded. We
have spent more than $7 trillion in the Middle East.” “Great nations do not fight endless wars,” he maintained.
He reiterated that the US has liberated “virtually all of that territory from the grip” of the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Senior Iranian figures said on Wednesday that Syria was a top foreign policy priority and American troops should withdraw, as planned by Trump.
“Whether they want to or not, the Americans must leave Syria,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reported as saying.
There are fears in the West that Trump’s plan to extricate about 2,000 soldiers from Syria will cede influence to Tehran, which has backed President Bashar al-Assad in the nearly eightyear war, and also allow Islamic State militants to regroup.
“Now 90 percent of Syrian soil is under the control of the government and the rest will soon be freed by the Syrian army,” Velayati added during a meeting with Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.
President Hassan Rouhani told Moualem that peace in Syria was a priority. “One of the important regional and foreign policy goals of the Islamic Republic is the stability and complete security of Syria,” Tasnim quoted him as saying.
“And establishing normal conditions in Syria and the return of the people of this country to their normal lives.”
Moualem was in Tehran for negotiations before the meeting of leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran in the Russian Black Sea resort town Sochi on Feb 14 over Syria.
Separately, Rear-Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, a deputy commander of the regular armed forces, said on Wednesday that Iran plans to extend the range of its land-to-sea missiles beyond 300 kms (186 miles), according to the Fars news agency.
Iran has expanded its missile program, particularly its ballistic missiles, in defiance of opposition from the United States and expressions of concern by European countries.
Tehran says the programme is purely defensive.
The European Union said on Monday it was gravely concerned by Iran’s ballistic missile launches and tests, and urged it to stop activity that deepens mistrust and destabilises the region.
Iran’s foreign minister is pushing back after Trump said the country does “bad, bad things” and appeared to link it to the deadly attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue last year by an American anti-Semite.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Wednesday that “Iranians – including our Jewish compatriots – are commemorating 40 yrs of progress despite US pressure, just as @realDonaldTrump again makes accusations against us.”
In his State of the Union address, Trump said Iran “chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people. We must never ignore the vile poison of antiSemitism or those who spread its venomous creed.”
He then spoke about the synagogue shooting, in which 11 people were killed, without directly implicating Iran.