Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the first US 2020 presidential debate between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden showed America is entangled in a difficult situation in both domestic and foreign spheres.
Rouhani made the remarks during a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, hours after the US candidates clashed in heated exchanges over health care, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic and anti-racism protests.
He said Washington had recorded the worst handling of the virus outbreak and failed to achieve any success regarding its foreign policy.
“The Americans themselves are in a very difficult situation,” Rouhani stressed, adding that the Iranian people who watched the debate or read about it “see what a situation they (the Americans) are mired in. On the one hand, they had the worst management in the coronavirus, and are grappling with the worst unemployment rate and unrest inside the United States…On the other hand, they achieved no victory in [their] foreign policy,” Rouhani said.
He added, “They failed in their foreign policy agenda not only towards Iran, but also towards the region, the Pacific, Europe and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”
Rouhani also lashed out at the US for adopting “the most hostile, criminal and terrorist policies” against the 84-million Iranian nation, describing unity as the only way to counter those schemes.
“Our enemies were unsuccessful in [the past] three years and, God willing, they will be so in these final months and the situation will not remain like this…if we stand united,” he underlined.
The US unleashed the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran in 2018, when it left the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Following its unilateral withdrawal, Washington targeted the Iranian people with the “toughest ever” economic sanctions.
Source: Iranian Agencies
