A mix of anger and anguish among the Iranian public has greeted US President Donald Trump’s decision to declare that Iran is not in compliance with the nuclear accord with world powers. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani promptly responded to Trump’s speech on Friday, calling it “a pile of delusional allegations” and “an insult to the Iranian people”. Just hours earlier, Trump had disavowed the nuclear deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for it giving up majority of its stockpile of nuclear fuel rods. He said he wanted to impose more restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, and threatened to terminate the deal if the US Congress fails to agree to his plan. Trump also announced that he would impose more financial sanctions on the entire Iranian Revolutionary Guard, although he stopped short of declaring it a “terrorist” organisation. In response, Rouhani declared that his country “has not bowed down to any power, and will not do so in the future”, letting slip his irritation by sprinkling his nationally-televised speech with more informal Persian words. Media reported that under the 2015 deal signed in Vienna between Iran and six world powers, the US, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and China, the leadership in Tehran scaled back the country’s uranium enrichment programme. According to UN inspectors, Iran continues to be in compliance of that condition.
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