Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Donald Trump of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist [Israeli] regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children”.
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumour that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious centre in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks, but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are a source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-US talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
