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Washington to Tehran: Do Not Test President’s Resolve | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Iranian presidential candidate Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Foreign Minister, walks past a portrait of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the conclusion of his press conference in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 3, 2013. The 11th presidential election after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution will be held on June 14. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)


Washington to Tehran: Do Not Test President’s Resolve

by | Feb 6, 2017 | World |

Washington to Tehran: Do Not Test President’s Resolve

London, Washington- The new U.S. administration went ahead with its threats against Iran on Sunday after Vice President Mike Pence warned it “not to test the resolve” of President Donald Trump.

The new warning came a few days after Washington announced new sanctions against people and entities linked to Iran’s nuclear program and over its support to terrorism after the U.S. criticized Tehran for carrying out a ballistic missile test.

In an interview with ABC News broadcasted on Saturday, Pence said: “Iran would do well to look at the calendar and realize there’s a new president in the Oval Office. And Iran would do well not to test the resolve of this new president.”

According to Agence France Presse, the Vice President also said: “The Iranians got a deal from the international community that again, the president and I and our administration think was a terrible deal.”

Pence revealed the administration was currently evaluating the nuclear deal approved with Iran during the term of president Barack Obama in 2015.

The stances made by the new U.S. administration against Tehran and its nuclear program place several question marks on whether Washington was going to relinquish its previous commitments, which forced Tehran to limit its nuclear program in exchange for relief from U.S. and international sanctions.

In Tehran, Ali Akbar Vilayati, who advises Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on foreign affairs, described the U.S. policies of being “immature and void.”

Meanwhile, head of Iran’s Civil Defense Organization Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali said that no quick judgment should be made about the new U.S. administration.

However, Jalali said Iran is ready to make a crushing response to any act of aggression.

In a tweet posted last Thursday, Trump accused Iran of taking over more of Iraq although Washington has lost $3 trillion there.

Vilayati replied to Trump in another tweet, saying: “If they lost this sum there, they have in return made the Iraqis lose thousands of millions of dollars and they have enforced two destructive wars on Iraq.”