TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani has reacted to the Tuesday night presidential debate in the U.S., saying the Americans are stuck in a very difficult situation.

The incumbent president, Donald Trump, who represents the Republican party, faced off the Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday night, marking the first 2020 presidential debate.

During the debate, the two candidates repeatedly interrupted each other, accused each other of lying and corruption, and insulted one another. The debate was met with online ridicule by people from all around the world.

“If people watched the debate last night or read about it today in newspapers and on the internet, they saw that what a predicament they’re in,” Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, according to Mehr.

“On the one hand, they’ve had the worst management of the coronavirus, and on the other hand, they’ve been hit by unemployment and domestic unrest,” he said.

The president said the U.S. has achieved no victory in its foreign policy “not only toward Iran, but also toward the region, the Pacific, Europe and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).”

He said the most hostile and cruel policies have been adopted by the United States against the Iranian people.

The Tehran-Washington tensions have been high since Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on all major industries in Iran, including oil and petrochemicals exports.

The U.S. sanctions were imposed on Iran under the banner of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy, with the professed goal of bringing Iran to the negotiating table to negotiate a new deal.

“Our enemies were not successful in three years and, God willing, they will be so in these final months and the situation will not remain like this,” Rouhani remarked.

MH/PA