Iran's top leader says Trump is ashamed of the United States

TEHERAN, KOMPAS.com – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's top leader, condemned the United States for imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei said in his statement that President Donald Trump was the biggest loser who had embarrbaded the United States' honor.

"This new American president has shamed the honor of the other United States and their liberal democracy."

"America's strength, namely its economic and military power, has also declined," Khamenei said via his Twitter account in Persian, citing his speech in Tehran on Saturday (03/11/2018).

Khamenei has rejected the new US sanctions that came into effect since Monday (29/10/2018), following Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal in May.

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Trump said the agreement needed to be renewed as it was considered to still allow Iran to develop its nuclear program.

Khamenei said that the conflict between Iran and the United States lasted for 40 years and that during this time, the United States continued their efforts to fight Iran in different ways, ranging from military wars to economic and media wars.

"Some facts are essential here, namely that during the 40 years of conflict, the losers were the United States and the winner is the Islamic Republic," Khamenei said. AFP.

Iran's top ruler said that US sanctions aimed at paralyzing the country's economy had actually pushed the movement to self-sufficiency.

"Our young people throughout the country support the independence of Iran, some of them may not be very religious, but they remain sensitive to the domination of foreign countries", said Khamenei.

Previously, in addition to re-imposing sanctions on Iran, the United States also added 700 people and entities to Iran's blacklist, and encouraged a global banking network to cut ties with Tehran in order to exert maximum pressure on the country.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said sanctions to seize the Iranian regime's revenues would be used to spread threats and destruction around the world.

"Our main goal is to force Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented criminal activities and to be able to act as a normal country," said Pompeo.

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