Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued “sarcastic remarks” thanking President Donald Trump for “showing the true face of his country to the world,” Fars reported. At the same time, Khamenei had nothing nice to say about President Obama.
“We are not thankful [to the Obama] administration at all because it imposed heavy sanctions with the aim of crippling the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic and of course, it didn’t attain its goal as no other enemy will be able to cripple this great nation either,” Khamenei said in Tehran on Tuesday, addressing the Army’s Air Force and Air Defense commanders and personnel.
AS to Trump’s comments that Tehran should thank the Obama administration Khamenei blasted: “Why should we thank the former US administration? For the anti-Iran sanctions? For the creation of ISIL? For setting fire in Syria and Iraq? Or for their hypocrisy, that is they express sincerity and a will for cooperation in a private letter but show clear support for seditious unrest after the 2009 presidential election?”
“These are instances of the same velvet glove worn by the former US Administration over its iron fist,” Khamenei said.
As to Trump’s recent remarks that the Iranians should fear him, Khamenei retorted, “Iranians don’t fear threats.”
But the grand ayatollah did “thank” Trump for showing Washington’s real face to the world, saying the new president proved Iran was right when it warned about the political, economic, social and moral corruption of the US ruling system.
Trump said last Sunday that Iran “lost respect” for the US following the 2015 nuclear deal, and now feels “emboldened” by the agreement. “Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion,” Trump tweeted.
Responding to the presidential tweets, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said (to Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan who was visiting Tehran), “We will not take permission from any country or international organization to develop our conventional defense power and we will confront any foreign interference in the defense affairs, including the Islamic Republic of Iran’s missile power.”
So, there you have it, a rousing war of words between the US and Iran, and now, to quote from that famous policy speech by Senator John McCain (R-Az): Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran…