by Editor (Editor's Desk, Crescent International Vol. 48, No. 5, Shawwal, 1440)
Only mentally retarded people would impose new sanctions, including on a country’s foreign minister and then claim they are “open to negotiations.” This is what Donald Trump did on June 24 evoking derision from the Iranian President.
President Hassan Rouhani said fresh American sanctions targeting the country’s senior officials prove that Washington is lying about seeking to hold talks with Tehran. He questioned the logic behind Trump’s executive order imposing bans on the Rahbar, Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei, his office, and eight senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
Trump has said the new sanctions will deny access to “key financial resources and support” for the Rahbar, his office, and those “closely affiliated” with him. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would also face sanctions “later this week,” according to the US treasury secretary.
President Rouhani mocked Trump’s decision to “seize assets of” the Rahbar as part the new sanctions order, saying he only owns “a Hosseiniyeh and a simple house” unlike leaders of other countries with billions in accounts abroad.
“To sanction him [the Rahbar] for what? Not to travel to America?” asked the president. To impose sanctions on Iran’s foreign minister proves the US is “lying” about the offer of talks with Tehran, that Trump and his minions have repeated parrot-fashion for months. “You [Americans] call for negotiations. If you are telling the truth, why are you simultaneously seeking to sanction our foreign minister, too?” he asked.
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