IRAN SOWING DEATH AND DESTRUCTION: TRUMP
Rejecting globalisation, US comes down on China, Opec
new york — US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged heavy pressure both on Iran and Washington’s trading partners as he offered a robust defence of the US right to go it alone.
Addressing world leaders at the start of the annual United Nations General Assembly, Trump lashed out at the Opec oil cartel, China’s trade policies and the International Criminal Court which he vowed the United States would never accept.
Hours before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes the same rostrum, Trump denounced the clerical regime as sowing “chaos, death and destruction” and doubled down on the US withdrawal of an international agreement on curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“We cannot allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous weapons,” Trump said, in an allusion to Tehran’s support for militant movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah. “We cannot allow a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth,” he said. “We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues.”
But the populist leader was comparatively subdued a year after he stunned the global body with his bellicose language on North Korea, including a threat to “totally destroy” Kim Jong-un’s state.
This time around, Trump heralded his own diplomacy on North Korea, including a historic summit in June with Kim, saying he has worked to “replace the specter of conflict with a bold and new push for peace”.
With mid-term elections in the US little more than a month away, Trump’s address at times took on the feel of a campaign address as he heralded low unemployment.
Boasting that his team “has achieved more than any administration in the history of our country”, Trump was met with laughter, highly unusual in the solemn General Assembly. “I didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay,” Trump responded. —