Iran: US President Donald Trump is not fit for his job, the speaker of Iran’s parliament said on Wednesday, according to the website of the Iranian judiciary, in Tehran’s most personal criticism since Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear past.
“Trump does not have the mental capacity to deal with issues,” parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on the judiciary’s website, Mizan.
Members of parliament burned an American flag and a symbolic copy of the Iran deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as a session of parliament began. They also chanted “Death to America”, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.
Iran’s Tasnim news site reported that Larijani also said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran should be ready to resume all nuclear activities.
General Mohammad Baqeri, the chief of staff of Iran’s military, said Iran did not have to sign the deal. “But that arrogant country (America) did not even stand by its signature,” the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted him as saying.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday Iran would remain committed to the multinational nuclear deal, designed to deny Tehran the ability to build nuclear weapons, despite Trump’s decision to withdraw from it.
“If we achieve the deal’s goals in cooperation with other members of the deal, it will remain in place. … By exiting the deal, America has officially undermined its commitment to an international treaty,” Rouhani said in a televised speech.
“I have ordered the foreign ministry to negotiate with the European countries, China and Russia in coming weeks. If at the end of this short period we conclude that we can fully benefit from the JCPOA with the cooperation of all countries, the deal would remain,” he added.
The JCPOA was struck in 2015 between Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – and Germany