Iran has shot back at US President Donald Trump, dismissing his all-caps Twitter warning that the country would suffer consequences if it continued to threaten the US, saying it was unimpressed by the late-night tweet.
“COLOR US UNIMPRESSED,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Monday night, employing Trump’s penchant to use all capital letters in his tweets.
“The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them — albeit more civilized ones — for 40 yrs. We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS.”
COLOR US UNIMPRESSED: The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them —albeit more civilized ones—for 40 yrs. We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 23, 2018
Zarif’s online comments are the latest in the escalating war of words between Washington and Tehran. Zarif’s tweet comes less than a day after Trump posted a furious Twitter warning to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday Trump was responding to forceful comments Rouhani made earlier Sunday, in which he warned Trump “do not play with the lion’s tail, because you will regret it eternally.”
Later Monday morning, national security adviser John Bolton said Trump told him that “if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.”
On Sunday night, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched a blistering attack on Iran’s religious rulers. The speech, which came hours after Rouhani’s threat but before Trump’s tweet, has been interpreted as part of a concerted effort within the Trump administration to step up economic and political pressure on Iran.
“The level of corruption and wealth among regime leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government,” Pompeo said during an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
Like Trump, Pompeo is a longstanding critic of the nuclear deal.
“We are asking every nation who is sick and tired of the Islamic Republic’s destructive behavior to join our pressure campaign. This especially goes for our allies in the Middle East and Europe, people who have themselves been terrorized by violent regime activity for decades,” said Pompeo.
Pompeo, the former director of the CIA, also used the speech to allege that the county’s leaders have made billions of dollars from corrupt dealings.
The secretary accused Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s head of state, of maintaining a personal off-the-books hedge fund worth $95 billion.
“These hypocritical holy men have devised all kinds of crooked schemes to become some of the wealthiest men on Earth while their people suffer.”
Source » cnn