Trump’s Call for Cooperation Not Credible

EghtesadOnline: US President Donald Trump’s apparent willingness to cooperate with Iran is not credible because it contradicts his overall policies toward the Islamic Republic, Iran's envoy to the United Nations said.

News ID: ۷۴۹۳۶۸

11 January 2020

"The American administration is not into dialogue and is into hostility toward the Iranian people. As long as it continues its hostility, talk of cooperation is not acceptable," Majid Takht-Ravanchi also told IRNA on Thursday.

Trump said on Wednesday that Tehran and Washington should work together on shared priorities, including the fight against the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group that he said is a natural enemy of Iran, according to Financial Tribune.

His statement came a few days after the US assassination of Martyr Major General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, who had played a crucial role in defeating the IS.

"We want you to have a future and a great future—one that you deserve, one of prosperity at home, and harmony with the nations of the world. The United States is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it," he said.

Trump was briefing the American nation about Iran's retaliatory attack on US military bases from where the strike on Soleimani and his companions in Baghdad was launched.

Additional Penalties

Trump said during the same speech, however, that he would "immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions" on Iran in response to what he called the "Iranian aggression".

"These powerful sanctions will remain until Iran changes its behavior," he threatened, according to the full text of his speech, published by the White House.

Takht-Ravanchi described the assassination of the great Iranian commander as a terrorist measure against Iran, which has opened a new chapter of US hostility toward the Iranian nation.

He added that the US has also been imposing intense pressure on the Iranian people through its sanctions for over one and a half years following its exit from the 2015 nuclear deal.

"In our view, this is economic terrorism and is against international law," he said.

Trump paradoxically claimed in his speech that he seeks a new deal that "allows Iran to thrive and prosper, and take advantage of its enormous untapped potential".

"When we put these things together, hear that they claim [willingness to have] cooperation and call for intensifying sanctions in the same speech, their claims are not believable," he said, adding that the Iranian people will not be deceived by such rhetoric.