Laughter at Trump speech a sign of U.S. isolation: Iran guards chief
GENEVA (Reuters) - Laughter during U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly was a sign of the United States’ isolation, the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday, Fars News reported.
FILE PHOTO: Iran's Revolutionary guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari speaks during a conference to mark the martyrs of terrorism in Tehran September 6, 2011. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl
Some delegates at the General Assembly on Tuesday laughed and muttered when Trump, in a speech, praised the “extraordinary” achievements of his administration.
“You saw and heard their laughter,” IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said, according to Fars. “The message of this ridicule was the crumbling of your facade and the increased isolation of America, and this was a big political disgrace.
“You can be sure,” Jafari said, “that the people of Iran and the region are laughing at your completely false and ridiculous claims, but you can’t hear their laughter from far away.”
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a Twitter post on Wednesday that the United States had “abused” the U.N. Security Council and is “further isolated”.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 25, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
“Once again, the U.S. abused the UNSC only to find itself further isolated in its violation of #JCPOA and SC resolution 2231. When will it learn its lesson?” Zarif tweeted.
He was referring to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that Trump pulled out of in May, and the Security Council resolution that endorsed the deal.
Trump told a Security Council meeting on Wednesday that Washington was pursuing additional sanctions against Tehran “to counter the entire range of Iran’s malign behavior.”
The United States accuses Iran of supporting destabilizing proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani traded taunts at the assembly session, with Trump threatening more sanctions against Tehran and Rouhani suggesting the U.S. president suffered from a “weakness of intellect”.
“America is the symbol of oppression in the world,” Revolutionary Guards commander Jafari said. “And the oppressed and those in pursuit of freedom are uniting against them.”
Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Mark Heinrich
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