‘Toxic unilateralism’: Iran says impulsive Trump increasingly isolates US, even from allies

“Today, the United States is isolated in the public opinion of the world and is even more secluded among the Iranian people because the US sanctions plan is against the Iranian people,” Rouhani said on Saturday, on the eve of the third anniversary of the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

READ MORE: Trump ruffles allies’ feathers with indelicate statecraft during European tour

“America’s illegal actions … have even isolated it among its own allies, as we just saw,” Rouhani added, apparently referring to US President Donald Trump’s whirlwind European tour full of indelicate statecraft.

Back in May, and despite protests from other signatories to the international nuclear deal, Trump unilaterally scrapped the 2015 agreement between Tehran and world powers, and re-imposed US sanctions against Tehran. While Russia, Germany, the UK, France and China remain committed to the cornerstone security treaty, the US threatened its allies with sanctions unless they stopped trading with the Islamic Republic by November.

While Trump has made it no secret that he expects the “pain” of US economic vendetta to force Tehran to seek a new agreement with Washington, Rouhani noted that indiscriminate sanctions make little sense, unless they deliberately target common people.

“If the sanctions were for a particular sector and industry, they could have been justified for their excuses, but these sanctions are a general and blind measure that would put pressure on the people of Iran,” Rouhani said. “Therefore, their plan is to pressure the Iranian people while they also pressure other nations.”

To battle the US “plot,” Tehran has chosen the way of “endurance, resistance, planning and coordination with the people,” all while engaging in diplomacy with “friendly” governments.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, meanwhile, reminded that the P5+1 deal was a “triumph of multilateral diplomacy” and that, with with its unilateral moves, the Trump administration has clearly demonstrated to the entire world that it cannot be trusted.

“While we knew the US can’t be trusted to keep its word —as its allies have now discovered— JCPOA proves that the toxic unilateralism of the Trump administration means it can’t be relied on to honor any deal,” he added on Twitter.

READ MORE: ‘If Iran can’t export oil no-one in Middle East will,’ Tehran warns

Just ahead of the third anniversary of the deal, the remaining signatories agreed to create a special mechanism to maintain trade with Iran, independently from Washington. Iran has also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil shipments, if the US follows through on its threat and deters European allies from Iran’s oil exports.

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