Iran vehemently responded Tuesday to new U.S. sanctions against its leaders, saying they showed Washington was "lying" about an offer of talks and marked the end of diplomacy with the Trump administration, amid an escalating regional standoff.
Washington blacklisted Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top military chiefs on Monday, saying it would also sanction Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif later in the week.
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"At the same time as you call for negotiations you seek to sanction the foreign minister? It's obvious that you're lying," Rouhani said in a meeting with ministers, broadcast live on TV.
His comments came as U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said Washington had "held the door open to real negotiations" but that "in response, Iran's silence has been deafening."
Bolton is in Jerusalem for what Israel described as unprecedented talks with his Russian and Israeli counterparts, along with meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking alongside the U.S. advisor, Netanyahu said there was "a wider basis for cooperation between the three of us than many believe."
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) hold a joint press conference after their meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in West Jerusalem, June 23, 2019. /VCG Photo
Tensions between them have been escalating since U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew last year from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Trump has since moved to choke Iran's economy, blacklisted Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a "terrorist organization" and nearly launched a military strike in retaliation to Iran downing a U.S. spy drone.
Russia on Tuesday backed Iran's version of events, which claimed that the drone had violated Iranian airspace despite Washington's denial.
U.S. President Donald Trump (C) speaks before signing an executive order imposing fresh sanctions on Iran as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (L) and Vice President Mike Pence look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2019. /VCG Photo
Washington, on the other hand, has also blamed Iran for mid-June attacks on two tankers in sensitive Gulf waters, a claim Iran hotly refutes.
Trump has said he is ready to negotiate with Iran "with no preconditions" and that Iran could have a "phenomenal future." "We do not ask for conflict," he said, adding that depending on Iran's response, sanctions could end tomorrow or "years from now."
But Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Tuesday that the new sanctions meant "permanent closure of the path to diplomacy with Trump's desperate government."
Rouhani also mocked the logic of blacklisting the supreme leader, who has few assets and no plans to visit the U.S.. "To sanction (the supreme leader) for what? Not to travel to America? That's cute," he said.
(With input from AFP)
(Cover: Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi shows maps of airspace to the media outside Security Council chambers at the UN headquarters in New York, U.S., June 24, 2019. /VCG Photo)