Trump’s Anti-Iran Rhetoric Isolates US, Not Iran: Commander
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami said Washington has long sought to isolate Iran internationally but the American president’s recent anti-Iran comments have isolated the US in the world.
Speaking at a gathering of IRGC forces in Tehran on Wednesday, General Salami referred to US hostile moves against the Islamic Republic over the past four decades, saying all of those moves ended in failure.
The enemy has been seeking to isolate Iran, he said, adding that Trump’s recent anti-Iran speech led to US isolation instead.
The senior commander went on to say that not only European countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) refused to comply with Trump’s stance toward Iran, but even his own defense and state secretaries held him in contempt for such a stance.
After months of anticipation, Trump on Friday said his administration “cannot and will not” certify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA, a nuclear deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), to Congress, as he set out a new strategy for dealing with Iran.
He also said that his new strategy begins with imposing tough sanctions on the IRGC, accusing Iran of “proliferation of missiles and weapons that threaten its neighbor’s global trade and freedom of navigation.”
Senior officials in France, Britain and Germany have dismissed the US president’s approach to the JCPOA, saying they will continue to support the nuclear deal.
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, too, said the 2015 nuclear deal is “working”, stressing that the US cannot unilaterally cancel the international agreement.
“It is clearly not in the hands of any president of any country in the world to terminate an agreement of this sort. The president of the United States has many powers (but) not this one,” the EU foreign policy chief stressed.
“This deal is not a bilateral agreement ... The international community, and the European Union with it, has clearly indicated that the deal is, and will, continue to be in place,” she added.
Also, International Monterey Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the IMF sees no reason to change its policy on granting loans to Iran despite US pressures and bans.
“We see no reason to change anything in the guidelines that we have received from the (IMF) Board and continue to operate in the same manner,” Lagarde said on Sunday, responding to a question on Trump’s new policy on Iran who has strongly urged the IMF and World Bank not to provide loans or funds to Iran.