TEHRAN – Iranian Ambassador to China Mohammad Keshavarzzadeh has said the ugly face of the United States has been exposed to the world by closing the Chinese Consulate General in Houston and its other illegal measures.

“The U.S. once again showed its hegemonic nature to the world by violating international laws in closing the Chinese Consulate General in Houston,” Keshavarzzadeh wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday.

“A country that claims to be an advocate of peace and saving the world is in practice the orchestrator of chaos and turmoil in the world,” he said.

On Tuesday, the U.S. government ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas, by the end of the week.

The Chinese consulate in Houston was one of five in the U.S., along with the embassy in Washington D.C. It was not clear why it was singled out.

Tensions have been rising between the U.S. and China over several issues.

The Trump administration has clashed repeatedly with Beijing over trade and the coronavirus pandemic.

Keshavarzzadeh said the United States has exposed its ugly face to the entire world by unilaterally withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, imposing a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, invading Iraq based on baseless allegations, waging war on Afghanistan and the trade war and all-out pressure on China.

The United States' view of international law and diplomacy not only threatens world peace and stability, but the ramifications of this behavior will be to the detriment of the United States itself, the envoy continued.

He added that the Islamic Republic condemns the U.S. government's decision to close the Chinese consulate in Houston and believes that China will certainly respond appropriately.

In a retaliatory measure on Friday, China ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in the south-western city of Chengdu.

China said the move was a “necessary response” to the U.S.

According to China's Foreign Ministry, the closure was a “legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable actions taken by the United States.”

“The current situation between China and the United States is something China does not want to see, and the responsibility rests entirely with the United States,” the ministry said. “We once again urge the U.S. to immediately revoke the erroneous decision to create necessary conditions for the return of bilateral relations to normal.

On Twitter, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said the order was “a legitimate and necessary response to the unilateral provocative move by the U.S. to demand the closure of China's Consulate General in Houston.”

MH/PA