Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has threatened a “crushing response” if the United States goes ahead with plans to extend an embargo on Iranian trade of conventional arms, which the United Nations is set to lift later this year.
Under Iran’s deal with world powers to accept limits to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions, a UN weapons embargo is due to expire in October.
The United States, which exited the deal in 2018, says it wants to extend the embargo.
In a speech on Wednesday, Rouhani repeated Iran’s longstanding criticism of Washington’s decision to exit the nuclear deal, which he called a “stupid mistake”.
“If America wants to return to the deal, it should lift all the sanctions on Tehran and compensate for the reimposition of sanctions,” said Rouhani, a pragmatist whose rhetoric towards the United States is frequently more measured than that of some officials.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AP).