TEHRAN – U.S. President Donald Trump’s pronouncements on Iran during his ongoing West Asia tour have so far done little to help him advance a nuclear deal with the country, with Iran’s foreign minister taking to the public stage on Tuesday to call out the president’s “deception” and dishonesty. 

Trump visited Riyadh on Tuesday before heading to Doha, Qatar. His next stop is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he is expected to secure similar investment deals from the Persian Gulf state as he did in the two other capitals.

So far during his trip, when not signing economic cooperation deals ensuring billions of dollars from Arab rulers, Trump has been answering questions posed by journalists or speaking in forums. Part of his statements have focused on Iran and the indirect negotiations he has been holding with the country since early April.

Speaking at an investment forum in Riyadh, Trump called Iran the “biggest and most destructive” force in West Asia, before proceeding to make fun of the economic woes of its population of 90 million caused by debilitating and unabating U.S. sanctions in the past four and a half decades. The sanctions were lifted for a while during the 2010s after Tehran signed a deal that limited its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, but Trump scrapped that pact during his first term in office and brought back the embargoes. 

“Iran's decades of neglect and mismanagement have left the country plagued by rolling blackouts lasting for hours a day,” Trump said, before claiming that “Iran's leaders have managed to turn green farmland into dry deserts, as their corrupt water mafia -- it's called the water mafia, causes droughts and empty riverbeds.” Trump's statement omitted the fact that U.S. sanctions have severely restricted Iran's access to international drought relief and hampered its ability to produce and purchase electricity.

On the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “It is the U.S. that has prevented the progress of the Iranian nation through its own sanctions over the past forty-odd years, with its own pressures, and with military and civilian threats.

"The one responsible for the economic problems is the U.S. and the arrogant policies it has imposed on the Iranian people, demanding a dependent and obedient system, which is in contradiction to the dignity of the Iranian people," he added.
Araghchi also questioned how Trump has the audacity to call Iran a “destructive” force in the region in the face of heinous Israeli crimes in the past two years. "The U.S. President has ignored all of Israel's crimes in the region and is seeking to portray Iran as a threat; this is pure deception and a reversal of the source of threats," he said. "Who has caused this much destruction in Gaza? Which regime attacks the areas surrounding Palestine, including Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen? The extent of the occupation carried out by the Zionist regime in Syria in recent months is greater than the entire area of Gaza,” Araghchi added. 

Iran and the U.S. have held four rounds of indirect talks to reach an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program and are currently scheduling a fifth one. Trump told both Saudi and Qatari officials that he desires a deal with Iran, but made sure to couple that with threats of "maximum pressure" or unspecified "bad" consequences. To date, the president's presence in West Asia has not appeared to significantly facilitate progress towards this deal.