TEHRAN – The British Trade Envoy to Iran, Norman Lamont, has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s treatment of Iran, saying “no attention is paid to the insecurity of Iran while the West goes on pouring arms to the enemies of Iran, a country that has been invaded by its Arab neighbors.”

It came after U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel, during which Trump singled out Iran as the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, saying, “For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror.”

In a television interview with Bloomberg, Lord Lamont said that Trump’s recent statement about the Islamic Republic during his visit to Saudi Arabia was a “mistake” and that Tehran deserves a better reaction from the West.

Calling for “a little bit more understanding of the Iranian position,” he said Trump should assure Tehran that “not only doesn’t the West seek regime change in Iran, but it calls for better ties.” 

President Rouhani was quite outspoken during his election campaign not just about getting trade and investment into Iran but also about improving relations with the outside world, he said.

Noting that Rouhani specifically mentioned its Arab neighbor Saudi Arabia and said there is no need for this tremendous hostility between the two, Lamont said he felt it was sad that “Trump could not even acknowledge when he was in Saudi Arabia what President Rouhani had said.”

During his visit to Riyadh which was his first foreign trip since he took office, Trump signed a $110 billion military deal with the Saudis, a deal said to be one of the biggest arms sales in history. 

“I do not think the American people are ready to trade the lives they lost in Sept. 11 with billions of dollars gained through weapons sales,” said Rouhani in a news conference days after his landslide victory.

The Iranian president further said that Riyadh cannot solve terrorism just by giving their people’s money to a superpower.

Rouhani, who was re-elected as Iran’s president for another four years on May 19, denounced Saudi Arabia as an undemocratic state which “I doubt knows the definition of elections.”

“Mr. Trump arrived in the region at the time when he saw 45 million Iranians participating in the elections,” he said, expressing hope that one day Saudi Arabia chooses the same path.

MH/PA