Rouhani to America: You’re Confused

Amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, the typically measured Iranian President Hassan Rouhani struck a harsher tone in remarks on June 25. A transcript is below.

The [Americans] are discouraged. In every scenario, they move forward but reach no results.

They had been discouraged, and, recently, they have become confused. They do not know what they should do. They do peculiar things. I do not recall any wise person in the political history of the world ever doing such things. If it ever did happen, it was on such a low scale that we don’t even remember it.

It is all because of the big confusion. They are afflicted with mental disability. The White House is afflicted with mental disability. They do not know what should be done. Every day they encounter another problem.

They did not think that … you know that from the military perspective, drones are difficult to detect. Due to their small size, their aerodynamic structure, and the color they are painted with, detecting them is not an easy task. In addition, this drone flies at an altitude of 50,000 or 60,000 feet.

…The mere fact is that this drone was shot down and with a locally made system no less. If we had shot the drone down with an S-300 system, they would say that we had shot it down with a foreign missile. But we shot it down with an Iranian-made system. The system’s missiles and radar are Iranian-made.

…I’m not saying that we wanted to humiliate America. No. We are not looking to humiliate anybody. However, this has raised our people’s morale considerably. It showed that we have the capability [to do this].

…The Pentagon is confused. U.S. Central Command is confused. The White House is confused. Amid all this confusion and discouragement, they have started to act irrationally and to talk nonsense.

What administration with a modicum of wisdom and foresight would announce sanctions on the highest official of [another] country?

[Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] is not just a political figure. He is a political, religious, social, and spiritual figure. We are not talking about the leader of Iran only. He is the leader of all the lovers of Iran, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, of the Muslims, and of the Shiites across the world.

Iran’s leader is not just about Iran. There are so many people in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Kuwait, and everywhere—Shiites and non-Shiites.

They all care. They all love, emulate, and obey [Khamenei].

…Our leaders are not like the leaders of other countries, who keep offshore accounts with money in the billions, which you could sanction, take over, or block.

This transcript is taken from video footage of Hassan Rouhani’s televised remarks on IRINN TV that were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.