Iran’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that the US election provides “opportunities for revisiting and reconsidering unjust and ill-suited approaches,” according to the state news agency IRNA.
“Our people have very bitter experiences from past consecutive American administrations,” said ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, IRNA reported.
During his first term as president, Donald Trump significantly intensified pressure on Tehran, withdrawing from a 2015 agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear activity and re-imposing sanctions on the country.
Baghaei added that the American people have “made their choice” by electing Trump, adding that what matters to Iranians is Washington’s behavior moving forward. “What matters for us is the US’s deeds,” he said.
A number of other foreign representatives and heads of states responded to Trump’s win on Wednesday, many offering congratulations. Among them was Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who expressed his congratulations in a phone call on Thursday.
During his last presidency, Trump declared himself a “big fan” of Turkey’s strongman leader. Turkey is a strategically important NATO member due to its geographical location in both the Middle East and Europe, and is the alliance’s second-largest military power.
On Wednesday, the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also said he looked forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump to face threats from North Korea and Russia. Rutte praised Trump’s success in encouraging other NATO member states to invest at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) in defense.
“When he was president, he was the one in NATO who stimulated us to move over the 2%. And now also thanks to him, NATO, if you take out the numbers of the US for a moment, is above the 2% and I think very much that is his doing, his success, and we need to do more,” the NATO chief said.
Rutte said European leaders would on Wednesday discuss the “dangerous new developments” of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea working together, and that he looked forward to talking about those threats with Trump.
(CNN)
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