The Iranian military’s deputy chief of staff reportedly called President Barack Obama a “low-IQ” president over Obama’s repeated threat that a military strike remains an option for stopping Iran’s nuclear program should a negotiated deal fail.
Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri called Obama’s comments on Iran in a recent interview, “the joke of the year,” according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.
“The low-IQ U.S. president and his country’s Secretary of State John Kerry speak of the effectiveness of ‘the U.S. options on the table’ on Iran while this phrase is mocked at and has become a joke among the Iranian nation, specially the children,” Jazzayeri was quoted as saying.
“Obama’s statements about the number of the U.S. troops in the region and the extent of their influence are completely inexpert remarks far from the reality, and these statements can be used as the joke of the year,” he said.
Countering Obama’s warning, Jazzayeri said U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf are within reach of the Iranian military.
“If they err, the region will be turned into a hell for them,” he vowed..
In the interview published Sunday, Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg asked Obama whether he believes the Iranian leadership takes his “all options are on the table” threat seriously.
“I know they take it seriously,” Obama said. “We have a high degree of confidence that when they look at 35,000 U.S. military personnel in the region that are engaged in constant training exercises under the direction of a president who already has shown himself willing to take military action in the past, that they should take my statements seriously.”
(H/T: Times of Israel)