Trump blasts Obama for giving billions to ‘brutal and corrupt Iranian regime’ as Islamic nation descends into protest-fueled chaos
President began first working day of 2018 by focusing attention on Iran
Protests are threatening to consume the longtime U.S. enemy
‘The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!’ Trump tweeted
He blasted the Obama administration for providing Iran with $1.7 billion in cash in August 2016, part of a deal to free four hostages
‘All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism,’ Trump claimed
By DAVID MARTOSKO
DAILYMAIL.COM
2 January 2018
President Donald Trump began his first working day of 2018 by refocusing the world’s attention on civil unrest gripping a longtime enemy 6,300 miles away – and blasting his predecessor for enabling them.
‘The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime,’ Trump wrote on Twitter. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their “pockets”.’
‘The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!’
A day earlier, Trump claimed as the new year began that Iran was ‘failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration.’
Clashes overnight between protesters and security forces in Iran killed nine people, including some rioters who tried to storm a police station to steal weapons.
The demonstrations, the largest to strike Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, have seen six days of unrest across the country and a death toll of at least 20. Offering his first comments since they began, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the ‘enemies of Iran’ of meddling in the country’s affairs.
The Obama administration was widely criticized in August 2016 for paying Iran more than $400 million in foreign-currency cash shipments in exchange for the release of four U.S. hostages.
Obama’s Treasury Department said at the time that the money represented unfrozen assets related to a years-old arms deal gone awry. Another $1.3 billion was added to the pot in subsequent days to satisfy ‘interest’ payments.
Protests began Thursday in Mashhad over Iran’s weak economy and a jump in food prices and have expanded to several cities, with some protesters chanting against the government and Khamenei. Hundreds of people have been arrested and a prominent judge on Tuesday warned that some could face death penalty trials.
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