Trump destroys US credibility, humiliates allies with ‘little games’: Iran FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has censured the remarks made by US President Donald Trump about the “game” he played before pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying that such “little games” played by Trump have destroyed US credibility and humiliated its allies.

His tweet came in reaction to Trump’s remarks in a phone conversation with his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner and a group of other Jewish figures, during which the US president said he played a “little game” before ultimately deciding to kill the multilateral 2015 nuclear agreement, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Iran was something that I was against the deal from the first day I heard about it. I thought it was a horror show. It should never have happened. … It was the craziest deal. And, I said, if I get in, I’m going to consider, after studying it, terminating the deal. I had a Secretary of State that didn’t like terminating it. I played the game for a while; I wish I did it sooner. But I played that little game for a while, and then ultimately I decided I’m just doing it. And I did it,” he said in the conference call Thursday night.

In his Friday tweet, the Iranian foreign minister slammed the US’ irresponsible behavior by telling Trump how “responsible powers” – Iran, Russia and Turkey – behave.

Zarif was referring to the Tehran Summit, which was held Friday to discuss the latest developments in Syria, particularly the Syrian army’s plan to launch an offensive to retake the northwestern Idlib province from terrorists.

Putin, Erdogan in Tehran for crucial Syria summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are in Tehran to discuss key issues of interest, mainly a planned Syrian operation to retake Idlib.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey, who according to Zarif “agreed to work to end terrorism and avoid human suffering in Idlib”, the last stronghold of militants in Syria.

According to the communiqué released after the trilateral meeting, the three leaders discussed the situation in Idlib de-escalation area during their Friday talks, and agreed to separate the UN-designated terrorist groups from the armed Syrian opposition groups that had joined or would join the ceasefire regime in their counter-terror offensive in a bid to prevent civilian casualties.