Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacted with surprise and attempted satire Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would stick by Saudi Arabia despite allegations over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Mr. Trump bizarrely devotes the FIRST paragraph of his shameful statement on Saudi atrocities to accuse IRAN of every sort of malfeasance he can think of,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.
“Perhaps we’re also responsible for the California fires, because we didn’t help rake the forests,” Zarif added.
Mr. Trump released a statement on Tuesday afternoon denouncing the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as a “terrible” crime. He said it was an action the United States “does not condone,” before adding he would take no further action against the Saudi government.
“It’s America first for me,” Trump explained later, vowing that he would not give up on hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia and China by confronting Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi was killed at a Saudi consulate.
The president spoke with reporters as he left the White House to travel to his Mar-a-lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump’s decision, saying, “We are determined to ensure that we continue to make sure that we take care of the American people in all of the strategic decisions we make about with whom we work with around the world.”
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