By RFE/RL
Iranian President Hassan Rohani said Tehran does not accept the United States making decisions for it in a defiant response to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement of tough economic sanctions against Iran.
"The world today does not accept that the United States decides for the world. Countries have their independence," Rohani said in a statement in Iranian media. "Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?"
His comments come hours after Pompeo said on May 221 that Washington will impose "the strongest sanctions in history [on Iran] once they come into full force" and that the "sting of sanctions will only grow more painful if the regime does not change its course."
Pompeo set 12 conditions for Iran to follow in order for the United States to agree to a new nuclear deal with Tehran in a speech in Washington on May 21 at the Heritage Foundation think tank.
Rohani dismissed Pompeo's statements, saying U.S. President Donald Trump's as a "move 15 years backwards to the era of Bush junior and a repeat of the same statements as 2003."
"The era of such statements has evolved and the Iranian people have heard these statements hundreds of times, and no longer pays attention," Rohani said.
