According to reporting by Reuters, US President Donald Trump and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani couldn’t miss an opportunity to exchange barbs with each other during the recent United Nations General Assembly as the two countries remain at odds and tempers remain piqued in the run-up to US-led sanctions on Iran that come into effect beginning November 4th.
Key highlights
US President Donald Trump threatened even further sanctions against Iran at the UNGA, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took the opportunity to suggest that his US opponent suffers from a “weakness of intellect”.
Trump addressed the UNGA for 35 minutes, where he took time to praise North Korea, remind the UN that the US will reject the concept of globalism in its entirety in favour of nationalist interests, and take the opportunity to remain eerily mum on the topic of Russian involvement in military conflicts, as well as US election rigging; but much of the president’s address was aimed squarely at Iran, and according to Trump, “Iran’s leaders sow chaos, death and destruction… They do not respect their neighbors or borders or the sovereign rights of nations.”
Rouhani took the opportunity to retort to the US president, noting that, “confronting multilateralism is not a sign of strength. Rather it is a symptom of the weakness of intellect – it betrays an inability in understanding a complex and interconnected world.”
Trump’s address was met largely by silence from world leaders still not comfortable with go-it-alone views that have strained U.S. relationships with traditional allies worldwide. – Reuters
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