Iranian President Says White House Is ‘Suffering Mental Disability’ Over Sanctions; Trump Threatens ‘Obliteration’ In Case Of Attack

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the White House is “suffering from mental disability” and behaving as “no sane person,” in the wake of new sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump earlier this week which an Iranian spokesman said have closed the “channel of diplomacy forever.”

The fresh sanctions — partly in retaliation over the downing of a US drone last week — target Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several other high-ranking officials.

The newly announced sanctions mean “closing [the] channel of diplomacy forever,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said in a tweet Tuesday, reported Iranian state-run television Press TV.

Tensions between the countries are now at their highest level in years, coming on the back of last week’s downed US drone, but also stretching to 2018 when Trump walked away from the Iranian nuclear deal implemented by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Iran has since threatened to exceed enrichment limits allowed under the nuclear deal and is blamed by the US for attacks on two tankers in the vital Gulf of Oman waterway earlier this month. Iran denied responsibility for the ship attacks.

Accusing the Trump administration of mental disability, Rouhani also said Tuesday that those “in charge of the White House are feeling frustrated” by the state of play in the region, reported the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Rouhani added that the US had wrongly expected to “create chaos” in Iran in two to three months, during his speech to senior health officials.

In response, Trump tweeted on Tuesday that “Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality.

Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration.”