Trump’s speech is ‘silly, superficial’, says Iran’s Supreme Leader

May 9, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he is withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was “silly and superficial”, Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Wednesday, according to his official website.

 “You heard last night that the president of America made some silly and superficial comments,” said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“He had maybe more than 10 lies in his comments. He threatened the regime and the people, saying I’ll do this and that.

“Mr Trump I tell you on behalf of the Iranian people: You’ve made a mistake.”

Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, reluctantly gave his backing for the Iran nuclear deal and has publicly criticized the U.S. multiple times for not following through on its promises under the agreement.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the U. S. would no longer remain part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and promised  to re-impose the highest level of economic sanctions against Iran in response to Tehran’s development of  nuclear programme.

“Egypt stresses importance of the involvement of the concerned Arab states in any dialogue on the future
of the Middle East, particularly, in relation to possible changes to the Iranian nuclear deal,” the
Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Cairo urged Iran and regional states to avoid any steps that could undermine security in the Middle East or
lead to military confrontations, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, the UAE welcomed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal, as it did not guarantee that Iran
would not acquire nuclear weapon in future, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry’s statement.

The decision was also welcomed by Saudi Arabia and Israel.

In response to the U.S. move, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Tehran was not going to
withdraw from the JCPOA, and that the agreement remained between Iran and the five remaining participants
of the deal. He noted that the United States never fulfilled the obligations under the nuclear deal, unlike Iran.

On July 14, 2015, the European Union and the P5+1 group of countries – China, Germany, France, Russia, the
UK and the U.S., signed the JCPOA with Iran.

The accord stipulated a gradual lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear
programme and allowing inspections to ensure that the nature of the program is peaceful.