Iran says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent tweets were “psychopathic reactions” to his country’s back-to-back defeats and a futile move to restore the Trump regime’s lost reputation.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Pompeo commented about the execution of a man convicted of murder in Iran, and described it as a “despicable” move made by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad “Zarif’s government”. He also called for consequences for what he called the Iranian government's "barbarity."
Later in the day, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh censured the tweets as “psychotic reactions” to the Trump administration’s “successive defeats”.
The tweets, which were “filled with anger” at Foreign Minister Zarif, stemmed from disappointment and depression following the US Department of State’s back-to-back defeats and were aimed at covering up those failures, the spokesman said in a statement.
“Unfortunately the US Secretary of State, who is witnessing the failure of the maximum pressure policy and unilateralism toward Iran more and more, is desperately attempting to retrieve part of the lost reputation of Trump’s regime by claiming to be an advocate of human rights,” Khatibzadeh said.
However, he added, the US itself has the darkest human rights record and there is no single day without protests by the American people against violence, discrimination and racism.
The spokesman said Pompeo’s tweets are “big lies” aimed at diverting public attention away from the “dire” situation inside the United States.
Khatibzadeh also lashed out at the US’ “hypocritical” approach toward the issue of human rights by tweeting screenshots of a couple of American media reports on Washington’s support for the murderer of a Saudi journalist and its “brutal” treatment of an Iranian scientist who had refused to work as an FBI spy.
In another tweet, he also mocked Pompeo for his contradictory remarks about the Iranian foreign minister’s authority in the Islamic Republic.
“One min, Pompeo claims FM Zarif ‘is no more in charge of what’s going on in Iran than a man in the moon’. And next min, Government of Iran is "Zarif's". Make up your mind, Mr. #LyingCheatingStealing Pompeo.”
In his Wednesday tweets, Pompeo also claimed that “world leaders” have “canceled” the Iranian foreign minister’s trip to Europe in reaction to the execution of Navid Afkari.
However, unlike what he has claimed, the Iranain Foreign Ministry cited “logistical problems” as the reason for the top Iranian diplomat’s canceled trip.