TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said that his administration and country will show a “unified” response to a breach of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
“The world should know that any breach of the deal will face a unified reaction of the Iranian nation and government.”
The Saturday remarks by the Iranian president came during the swearing in ceremony for his second term as president.
Iran’s state TV reported that more than 130 high-ranking officials from various countries and international organizations attended the ceremony in Tehran. Among them was EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who coordinates follow-up of Iran’s nuclear deal.
It was the first time in Iran’s history that a large number of foreign officials attended the president’s inauguration ceremony.
“Those who intend to tear down the deal, should know that they are tearing down their political life,” said Rouhani, without elaborating.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the nuclear deal as “bad” and during his campaign vowed to dismantle it.
Trump signed a bill Wednesday that imposes mandatory penalties on those involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.
It would also apply terrorism sanctions to Iran’s prestigious Revolutionary Guard and enforce an arms embargo. Iran has vowed to respond if the bill becomes law.
However, Rouhani said his administration will maintain its “moderate” behavior in response to any verbal challenge.
“We prefer peace to war and reform to rigidness,” said Rouhani.
Rouhani, 68, a moderate cleric who secured re-election on May 19, promised that his country will pursue a “path of coexistence and interaction with the world.”
He vowed that in his second term in office, Iran will “insist on constructive engagement with the world more than before.”
Rouhani was first elected in 2013 with nearly 51 percent of the vote.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed him for his second term as president on Thursday. Rouhani has to announce his new cabinet members to Parliament within 14 days. It is expected that he will do this on Tuesday.
Iran vows ‘unified’ response to breach of nuclear deal
Iran vows ‘unified’ response to breach of nuclear deal
Iran launches new attacks at Gulf Arab countries as it keeps up pressure on the region
- In addition to firing missiles and drones at Israel and American bases in the region, Iran has also been targeting energy infrastructure
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Iran launched new attacks Tuesday at Gulf Arab countries as it keeps up pressure on the region, while five pro-Iranian militants were killed in an airstrike northern Iraq.
Incoming missile sirens sounded early in the morning in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, while Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed two drones over its oil-rich eastern region and Kuwait’s National Guard said it had show down six drones.
In addition to firing missiles and drones at Israel and American bases in the region, Iran has also been targeting energy infrastructure which, combined with its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices soaring.
Brent crude, the international standard, spiked to nearly $120 on Monday before falling back but was still at around $90 a barrel on Tuesday, nearly 24 percent higher than when the war started on Feb. 28.
US President Donald Trump, who has previously said that the war could last for a month or longer, on Tuesday sought to downplay growing fears that it could be a long-term regional conflict, saying it was “going to be a short-term excursion.”
Trump sends contradictory messages as Tehran says it’s prepared for a long war
The war has choked off major supplies of oil and gas to world markets and sent fuel prices rising across the US The fighting has also led foreigners to flee from business hubs and prompted millions to seek shelter as bombs hit military bases, government buildings, oil and water installations, hotels and at least one school.
Iran has effectively stopped tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane between the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — the gateway to the Indian Ocean — through which 20 percent of the world’s oil is carried. Attacks on merchant ships near the strait have killed at least seven sailors, according to the International Maritime Organization.
In a post on social media on Tuesday, Trump seemed not to acknowledge that, saying that “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
In an apparent response to Trump’s remarks published in Iranian state media, a spokesperson for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Ali Mohammad Naini, said “Iran will determine when the war ends.”
Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the supreme leader, told CNN on Monday that Iran is prepared for a long war. He said he sees no “room for diplomacy anymore” unless economic pressure prompts other countries to intervene and stop the “aggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran.”
Airstrike on Iran-linked militia in Iraq kills five
As the conflict has spread against the region, Israel has launched multiple attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iranian-linked militia has responded by firing missiles into Israel.
Pro-Iran militias in Iraq have also launched attacks at US bases in the country since the beginning of the conflict.
Early Tuesday, one of those militias, the 40th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces in the city of Kirkuk, was hit with an airstrike that killed at least five militants and wounded four others, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the strikes.
Since the war began, at least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials.
A total of seven US service members have been killed.
Financial markets, which swung wildly in recent days, opened the day Tuesday in Asia with early gains, building on late optimism in the US
