US MUST LIFT SANCTIONS BEFORE TENSIONS CAN BE EASED: ROUHANI

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, on Tuesday blamed Washington for a steadily escalating row with the United States and said the situation will not be resolved unless US sanctions on the country are lifted.

Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Iran will “effectively counter further aggressions from the US against our borders, such as the shooting down of the US drone.”

He also said Iran has no interest in tensions in the region and particularly does not want a war, including with the US.

Rouhani was responding to US President Donald Trump statement earlier calling Iran’s reaction to new sanctions “very ignorant and insulting.”

Tehran had mocked the sanctions as “outrageous and a sign of mental retardation.”

Trump said that reaction showed

that the country’s leaders “do not understand reality” and again threatened to retaliate if Iran attacks any US assets.

“Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force,” the president said in a series of tweets. “In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration”. Rouhani said that Iran is committed to the imperilled 2015 nuclear deal but could also show flexibility.

“We will not undertake anything that we cannot reverse,” he said, adding that his country would return to the deal if the remaining five partners after the US withdrawal China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany - could uphold their side of the agreement.