TEHRAN – In response to U.S. President Donald Trump using swear words to threaten Iran, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Iran is not afraid of U.S. “bullying rhetoric.”

“The Iranian people aren't intimidated by the bullying rhetoric of the failing & lawless U.S. regime,” tweeted spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Friday night, moments after U.S. President Donald Trump used swear words to warn Iran against doing what he called “something bad” to the U.S.

Khatibzadeh was responding to a Trump’s profanity-laden tirade against Iran on Friday. The U.S. president said that he has put Iran on notice not to “f**k around” with the U.S.

“Iran knows that, and they've been put on notice: if you f**k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before,” Trump told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Trump also repeated his claim that if he wins the November 3rd election, he will reach a new deal with Iran within a few weeks.

“If I win, we'll have a great deal with Iran within one month,” he said.

Khatibzadeh seems to be regarding Trump’s comments as an affront to the Iranians’ dignity, saying the Iranian people do whatever they can to defend their dignity.

“Our people leave no stone unturned in defending Iran's dignity,” he asserted.
 
The spokesman also pointed to U.S. sanctions and the assassination of a top Iranian general earlier this year, saying Iran will respond to these “U.S. crimes”.

Khatibzadeh added, “WE will choose response to US crimes— including sadistic sanctions & criminal assassination of ISIS #1 enemy Gen. Soleimani.”

General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was assassinated by an American drone strike near Baghdad’s international airport on January 3. His assassination sent shock waves across the region and prompted Iran to shower a U.S. military base in western Iraq with missiles. The missile response caused brain injury among dozens of American troops stationed in Iraq. However, Iran said the final revenge for the assassination of General Soleimani would be the expulsion of U.S. forces from the Western Asia region.

On the other hand, the U.S. doubled down on its sanctions against Iran, with the latest series of sanctions being imposed this past Thursday.

The U.S. Treasury Department slapped new sanctions on Iran, targeting “eighteen major Iranian banks.” U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin said the restrictions were intended to sever Iran’s ties with the global financial system.

“Today, U.S. Treasury took further action to isolate the Iranian economy from the global financial system as the regime uses the financial sector to advance its malign agenda,” he said in a tweet.

Iran denounced the new sanctions as “inhumane” that could complicate Iran’s efforts to combat the novel coronavirus. President Hassan Rouhani described these sanctions as “cruel, terrorist and inhumane,” saying the Americans cannot break the resistance of the Iranian people.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also condemned the sanctions, saying they are designed to “to blow up our remaining channels to pay for food & medicine” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

SM/PA