US President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to obliterate parts of Iran if it attacked "anything American" after Tehran said the latest US sanctions had scuttled any chance of diplomacy, calling White House actions "mentally disabled."
Trump on Monday signed an executive order imposing sanctions against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior figures, with punitive measures against Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that are expected later this week.
The moves came after Iran shot down a US drone on June 20 and Trump called off a retaliatory airstrike minutes before impact, saying too many people would have been killed. It would have been the first time the United States had bombed the Islamic Republic in four decades of mutual hostility.
On Tuesday, however, Trump tweeted: "Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration."
Shortly before, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said imposing "useless sanctions" on Khamenei and Zarif would mark "the permanent closure of the path of diplomacy."
He added in a tweet: "Trump's desperate administration is destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security."
In a televised address on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the new sanctions against Khamenei would have no practical impact because the top cleric had no assets abroad.
Rouhani said the White House's actions showed it suffered from a "mental disability," which is an insult that other Iranian officials have used in the past about Trump, but a departure from Rouhani's own comparatively measured tone over the years.
"Tehran's strategic patience does not mean we have fear," said Rouhani, who with his cabinet runs Iran's day-to-day affairs while Khamenei, in power since 1989, is the country's ultimate authority.
Escalating US sanctions
The United States has imposed crippling financial sanctions against Iran since last year when Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers under which it curbed its nuclear program and won a removal of sanctions in return.
The crisis has escalated sharply since last month when the Trump administration tightened its sanctions against Iran, ordering all countries to halt purchases of Iranian oil.
That has effectively starved the Iranian economy of the main source of revenue Tehran uses to import food for its 81 million people, and left the pragmatic wing of Iran's leadership, led by Rouhani, with no benefits to show for its nuclear agreement.
