A U.S. official said Iran’s continued threats against the United States would split Tehran further from reconciliation.
U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook said recent statements by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would leave Khamenei’s nation “more isolated” on the world stage, according to Reuters.
“As long as the regime threatens the world, it will become more isolated,” Hook said. “Until Iran behaves like a normal nation, its isolation will only deepen.”
Khamenei delivered his first sermon in eight years on Friday, denouncing the U.S. and rallying Iranians against it. The supreme leader called President Trump a “clown” and said Trump would “push a poisonous dagger” into the backs of Iranians while pretending to support them.
The audience chanted “Death to America” while the Iranian leader warned that Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards may move beyond Iran’s borders in retaliation for a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 2 that killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani.
Iran launched ballistic missiles into two Iraqi military bases on Jan. 8 in retaliation for Soleimani’s killing. No U.S. or Iraqi soldiers were killed in the attack, though nearly a dozen U.S. service members were treated for concussions and trauma.
Trump ordered the strike on Soleimani, who organizes Iran’s terror network across the Middle East, after Soleimani orchestrated a violent protest outside of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Soleimani is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in the Middle East over the past two decades.
