The Iranian authorities have described this Friday the President of the United States, Donald Trump, as "schizophrenic" after his statement about the Strait of Hormuz as new U.S. territory, and have urged the international community not to support the policy of sanctions and economic isolation promoted by Washington.
The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Qaribabadi, explained in a message on social media that "schizophrenia is a type of complex and acute psychotic disorder that manifests with alterations in thinking and a distorted perception of reality," referring to the image disseminated by Trump in which he presented the Strait of Hormuz as part of the United States.
In his comment, the Iranian official emphasized that the most characteristic symptom of this illness is "hallucination and delusion" and added that "psychologists recommend that such patients should be monitored and treated 24 hours a day," in an ironic reference to the mental state of the American president.
Hours earlier, the head of the White House had described the Strait of Hormuz as "open" and defended that "the Iranian response is very moderate. They don't want us to attack them again. That's the whole game. The rest doesn't matter," according to a phone statement to the U.S. digital media Axios, insisting on the control of the United States over this strategic maritime route.
Tehran denounces illegal sanctions and calls for not applying them
In parallel to the standoff between Washington and Tehran over the sanctions aimed at strangling the Iranian economy and the warnings to the trading partners of the Islamic Republic, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has reiterated that the punitive measures announced by the United States "are completely illegal and unjustified measures that violate the United Nations Charter, International Humanitarian Law, and Human Rights."
"On this basis, all countries are obliged to refrain from applying such sanctions. Likewise, all States have the obligation to refrain from recognizing or validating the situations or effects derived from these illegal measures," the department that directs Iranian diplomacy stated in a statement addressed to the international community.
For Tehran, joining this pressure campaign "amounts to collaborating in the imposition of the illegal will of a state over sovereign and independent states and in the disruption of their legitimate economic and commercial relations," which is why it has warned of the consequences of following the line set by Washington.
In this context, the Islamic Republic has warned that complying with the sanctions implies "participating in the destruction of one of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter: the respect for the sovereign equality of states," considering that it undermines the international legal order.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has insisted that "the hidden intention" of these measures is "to impose pain and suffering on the Iranian people and deprive Iranian citizens of their fundamental Human Rights," which is why, in its view, they constitute "an international crime and a crime against humanity." "This policy openly violates the fundamental norms of Human Rights enshrined in international declarations and covenants," it has emphasized.