Iran's president on Wednesday described Donald Trump as a “madman”, likened him to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and predicted the American president would suffer a fate similar to the late Baathist leader, who was hanged in a Baghdad prison 14 years ago.
“The day that madman was hanged was the day people celebrated the final victory,” President Hassan Rouhani said during a cabinet meeting. “Trump’s fate won’t be much better than Saddam’s."
Rouhani's provocative remarks come four weeks before Mr Trump is to leave office and potentially face civil and criminal legal actions by federal and state authorities as well as private complainants for actions during and before his one-term presidency.
The Trump administration withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal involving Iran and other world powers and introduced a policy of “maximum pressure” targeting Iran’s economy.
Tightened US economic sanctions, including those targeting non-American companies considering investing or doing business in the country, have badly damaged Iran’s economy, which has been further strained by the coronavirus pandemic and endemic corruption and mismanagement.
Mr Rouhani called both Hussein, who launched a devastating eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s, and Mr Trump mentally unstable aggressors. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in the war, with Iran suffering the greater losses.
“One madman in our region was Saddam, who imposed a war on our nation, and the other madman was Trump, who imposed another war on our people,” he said in comments that were broadcast on state television.
“One imposed a military war on us, while the other imposed an economic war.”
Hussein, who was captured by US forces after the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, was put to death by hanging in an early morning execution overseen by his longtime political enemies.
Since the defeat, the Trump administration and its allies have stepped up pressure on Iran with sanctions and military maneuvers, egged on by a coterie of foreign-influenced Washington insiders eager to topple the four-decade regime in Tehran.
Intelligence sources have been cited by American news outlets as saying that Israel, with Washington’s blessing, was behind the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, seen as the father of Iran’s dormant clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Biden has signalled that he’d like to return to the Iran nuclear deal, a move that Mr Rouhani has welcomed as a way to ease economic pressure.
