Iran’s Defence Minister Brigadier-General Amir Hatami vowedWednesday to inflict the “bitter taste of defeat” on the UnitedStates in its “economic war” on the Islamic republic.
Hatami was speaking to Revolutionary Guards veterans inTehran with tensions riding high a year after President Donald Trump withdrewthe US from the Iran nuclear deal, leading to renewed economic sanctions onTehran.
The relations between the two countries have deterioratedeven further in recent weeks as the Trump administration ratchets up pressureon Iran over alleged threats from Tehran.
“The proud nation of Islamic Iran will once again…Pass this sensitive period of time with its head held high, and force thebitter taste of defeat onto the American-Zionist alliance,” Hatami said,referring to the US and its ally Israel.
Washington said on Saturday that in response to the allegedthreats from Iran, it was deploying an amphibious assault ship and a Patriotmissile battery to bolster an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers already sent tothe region.
President Hassan Rouhani later condemned the US sanctions onhis country.
“The hard times and problems of America’s economic waragainst Iran have begun… What America is doing is a crime againsthumanity,” he said.
Rouhani accused the US of disrupting the flow of”livelihood, food and medical drugs” to normal Iranians.
“This war is not against the government of the Islamicrepublic of Iran, it’s against the Iranian nation,” he said.