Iran Has Message for US After Bolton Firing

Rouhani urges Washington to 'put warmongers aside'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 11, 2019 4:47 AM CDT
Updated Sep 11, 2019 6:43 AM CDT
Iran Has Message for US After Bolton Firing
In this photo released by the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019.   (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Iran's president urged the US on Wednesday to "put warmongers aside" amid an escalating crisis between Washington and Tehran in the wake of the collapsing nuclear deal with world powers. Hassan Rouhani's remarks signaled approval of President Trump's abrupt dismissal of John Bolton as national security adviser, the AP reports. Bolton had been hawkish on Iran and other global challenges. Rouhani's website quoted him as further urging the US to "abandon warmongering and its maximum pressure policy" on Iran. He spoke at a Cabinet meeting in Tehran. Ali Rabiei, a government spokesman, said after the meeting that Bolton's dismissal may help the US have a "less biased" attitude toward Iran.

Though he stressed the dismissal was an internal US. issue, Rabiei called Bolton "the symbol of America's hawkish policies and its animosity toward Iran." Bolton was critical of any potential talks between Trump and leaders of Iran and persuaded Trump to keep US forces in Syria to counter the Iranian influence in the region. Trump last year pulled the US out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for caps on Iran's nuclear program. The US administration later also intensified sanctions on Iran, slashing its sales of crude oil abroad and sending the country's economy into freefall. In response, Iran has in recent months crept past the limits the nuclear deal imposed on uranium enrichment and its uranium stockpile.

(More Iran stories.)

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