Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused US National Security Adviser John Bolton of plotting for war against Iran in a tweet on Tuesday.
"Wanna know why those with a proven record of detesting diplomacy are suddenly interested in talks? Just read [Bolton's] 2017 recipe for destroying the #JCPOA," Zarif wrote, adding a link to a 2017 article written by Bolton in the National Review. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, is the landmark 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with world powers.
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"Iran never left the negotiation table. #B_Team dragged the US out, while plotting for war," Zarif added.
Zarif has said in the past that a "B-team" including Bolton and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could goad Trump into a conflict with Tehran.
Also on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani derided the White House as being "afflicted by mental retardation."
US President Donald Trump called the statement "very ignorant and insulting," tweeting that an Iranian attack on any US interest will be met with "great and overwhelming force ... overwhelming will mean obliteration."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Iranian statement "a bit immature and childlike."
"But know that the United States will remain steadfast in undertaking the actions that the president laid out in this strategy to create stability throughout the Middle East, which includes the campaign we have, the economic campaign, the pressure campaign that we have on the Islamic Republic of Iran," Pompeo added.
US officials announced earlier this week that they plan to sanction Zarif as well, something that drew Rouhani's anger during his televised address Tuesday.
"You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks," Rouhani said. He called the sanctions against Khamenei "outrageous and idiotic," especially since the 80-year-old Shiite cleric has no plans to travel to the US.
"The White House is afflicted by mental retardation and does not know what to do," he added in Farsi, using a term similarly offensive in English.
Meanwhile, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that his country has no reason left to carry out commitments under the nuclear deal without reciprocation from the remaining European signatories.
"With attention to the promises that have not been carried out from the European side, there is no reason left for Iran to carry out its commitments unilaterally," Araghchi said, adding: "Iran has kept the window of diplomacy open by reducing its commitments incrementally."
Iran will announce a new reduction of its commitments under the nuclear deal on July 7, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, regime spokesman Ali Rabiei tweeted on Tuesday that newly imposed US sanctions against Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are an attack against the nation.
"Sanctioning #the_supreme_leader, who for the first time issued a Fatwa [religious decree] against all forms of #WMD [weapons of mass destruction], is a direct attack to a nation. This action will increase the unity of Iranian people," he wrote in English.
