2LT International News

TEHRAN, Iran – U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of disgracing American prestige, and is overseeing the power of the United States declining militarily and economically.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the United States is also losing in what he says is a 40-year quest to undermine Iran.

“This new US president has disgraced the remnant of America’s prestige and that of liberal democracy. America’s hard power, that is to say their economic and military power, is declining too,” he posted on his Persian Twitter account on Saturday.

He also took aim at renewed sanctions which Mr Trump has ordered be reimposed on Monday.

“The challenge between the U.S. and Iran has lasted for 40 years so far and the US has made various efforts against us: military, economic and media warfare,” he said.  

“There’s a key fact here: in this 40-year challenge, the defeated is the US and the victorious is the Islamic republic.”

The sanctions, he said, are designed “to paralyse Iran’s economy and keep it backward. However, it has resulted in encouraging a movement towards self-sufficiency in the country,” Iran’s supreme leader said.

“Our youth, across the country, support independence. Some may not be so religious but they are sensitive towards domination by foreigners.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who controversially reneged on the deal with Iran agreed to by his predecessor Barack Obama, has followed through on his vow to re-impose the sanctions which had been lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of July 14, 2015 (the “JCPOA”).

The sanctions previously collapsed the Iranian economy, sending its currency plunging. Just the announcement they would be re-introduced have throttled Iran’s economy again in recent months.

“President Donald J. Trump is re-imposing the toughest sanctions ever on Iran, targeting many of the corrupt regime’s critical sectors,” a White House statement released on Friday said.

The re-imposition of sanctions to come into effect on Monday follow an initial raft of sanctions reimposed on 7 August this year. At that time the president repeated his displeasure with the Iran agreement.

“The JCPOA, a horrible, one-sided deal, failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence, and chaos,” he said without providing examples of what Iran is accused of.

Under the terms of the previous pact, Iran had to submit all sites for International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. Inspectors concluded Iran was in compliance, and in fact had not considered the establishment of nuclear weapons since at least 2003.

Earlier this year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the Mossad had obtained a stockpile of documents from an unguarded warehouse in Iran, and claimed they proved Iran was seeking nuclear weapons. The IAEA however dismissed the documents saying they were aware of them, and they had made no difference to their conclusions.

The Trump administration on Friday said the newly-imposed sanctions would target transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and certain Iranian financial institutions.

“Reimposing sanctions will cut off revenues the regime uses to bankroll terrorist groups, foment global instability, fund nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and enrich its leaders,” the White House statement said.

However, the sales of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices to Iran have always been and shall remain exempted from the sanctions, the statement said.