Attack by Iran on anything American will be met with overwhelming force: Trump

After Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed White House actions as "mentally retarded", US President Trump hit back today saying "any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force" as the war of words between the two nations continued nearly a week after Iran downed a US surveillance drone.

"Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality," the US president tweeted, adding,"the wonderful Iranian people are suffering, and for no reason at all. Their leadership spends all of its money on terror, and little on anything else."

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"The US has not forgotten Iran’s use of IED’s & EFP’s (bombs), which killed 2000 Americans, and wounded many more," any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration."

Even as Iran and the US exchanged verbal firepower, US national security advisor(NSA) John Bolton in a conciliatory tone said the door towards negotiation was open with Iran.

"All that Iran needs to do is to walk through that open door," he said.

However, Iran on Tuesday dismissed the new US sanctions and said the latest sanctions showed Washington is "lying" about offering to negotiate.

"At the same time as you call for negotiations, you seek to sanction the foreign minister? It's obvious that you're lying," Iran President Hassan Rouhani said.

On Monday, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others as tensions continued to rise in West Asia ignited bythe oil tanker attack which the US blamed on Iran's Revolutionary Guard.