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DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that US President Donald Trump would fail in his confrontation with Iran, like Iran's Saddam Hussein, referring to the war between the two powers.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attends a press conference at the Chancellery in Vienna, Austria, on July 4, 2018. REUTERS / Lisi Niesner / Files
Tensions escalated between Iran and the United States after Trump pulled out of a historic multilateral nuclear deal in May and reintroduced sanctions against the Islamic Republic last month.
As Rouhani said, Iran began to display its naval power in the Gulf during annual parades in the capital Tehran and in the port of Bandar Abbas in the Gulf, marking the beginning of the war between 1980 and 1988 against Iraq.
Iran has suggested in recent weeks that it could take military action in the Gulf to block oil exports from other countries in retaliation for US sanctions to stop its crude sales.
Washington maintains a fleet in the Gulf that protects oil transportation routes.
"The same thing will happen to Trump. America will suffer the same fate as Saddam Hussein, "said Rouhani in a speech broadcast live by state television.
"Iran will not abandon its defensive weapons … including its missiles that make America so furious," Rouhani said.
State media said nearly 600 ships had participated in the Gulf Naval Exercise on Saturday, a day after Iran conducted air exercises in the waterway, vowing that a "hard-hitting response" was waiting for them. enemies of the country.
Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Tom Hogue and Nick Macfie
