kayhan.ir

News ID: 57339
Publish Date : 12 September 2018 - 21:48

Rouhani: U.S. in Worst Situation Globally

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the U.S. is currently going through one of the darkest chapters in its history both at home and on the international scene, where it has lost even the support of its traditional allies.
Addressing a cabinet meeting, Rouhani said the situation in the United States is quite different from the past.
"Today, there are few researchers, intellectuals and experts in the U.S. that share the same opinions as those at the White House, and some of them even explicitly refer to American rulers as idiots. This has rarely happened in U.S. history.”
Rouhani said U.S. allies do not politically side with Washington anymore and even the country’s traditional allies have "proudly” distanced themselves from America.
"This is while they once were proud to be with the United States,” he said, adding only a few "ill-famed” countries are currently supporting Washington.
"The U.S. is today in its worst situation globally, and even international organizations such as UNESCO, the UN, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)  and the International Criminal Court do not approve of American policies.”
Referring to Washington’s stepped-up pressure against Iran following its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, Rouhani said the Islamic Republic is facing an "unsolicited” economic war by those who have no respect for international law.
On Monday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton threatened sanctions against the ICC should The Hague-based court proceed with its bid to launch an investigation into alleged war crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan or conduct any probe into Israeli atrocities or violations by other U.S. allies.
Last year, the U.S. quit UNESCO, accusing the UN cultural agency of "anti-Israeli bias.”
Back in May, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 Iran deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), despite objections from the other signatories to the accord.
Trump introduced the first wave of anti-Iran sanctions in August and threatened that the second wave would "ratchet up to yet another level” in November.
Nevertheless, the IAEA has repeatedly confirmed Iran's full compliance with the JCPOA, which has been endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
Iran's Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif slammed the U.S. threats on Tuesday.
"The U.S. threatens to impose sanctions on the ICC & even prosecute its judges in American courts. Where is the outrage?" he wrote on his Twitter account. "The boorishness of this rogue U.S. regime seems to know no bounds. When will the international community say enough is enough & force U.S. to act like a normal state?"
Bolton's speech was an extraordinary rebuke also decried by human rights groups that complained it was another Trump administration rollback of U.S. leadership in demanding accountability for gross abuses.
"Any U.S. action to scuttle ICC inquiries on Afghanistan and Palestine would demonstrate that the administration was more concerned with coddling serial rights abusers — and deflecting scrutiny of U.S. conduct in Afghanistan — than supporting impartial justice," said Human Rights Watch.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents several people who claim they were detained and tortured in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2008 and could be victims or witnesses in any ICC prosecution, said Bolton's threats were "straight out of an authoritarian playbook."
"This misguided and harmful policy will only further isolate the United States from its closest allies and give solace to war criminals and authoritarian regimes seeking to evade international accountability," the ACLU said.