 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responds to US president decertifying nuclear deal, saying Tehran will not violate agreement first 
 
 Iran’s supreme leader has said his country will not take heed of “rants and whoppers of a foul-throated US president”, in a speech that also made clear that Tehran will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal. Khamenei on Wednesday urged Europe to do more to back the 2015 nuclear deal after President Donald Trump refused... (Associated Press) 
 
 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday urged Europe to do more to back the 2015 nuclear deal after President Donald Trump refused to re-certify the pact. “I don’t want to waste our time to respond to the rants and whoppers of the foul-throated president of the United States,” he said, according to the transcript of his speech posted on his official website. “Everyone should know that once again America will receive a slap in its mouth and will be defeated by the people of Iran.” 
 
 
 
 Khamenei was reacting to Trump’s vituperative speech on Friday, during which he announced he was decertifying Tehran’s compliance under the nuclear accord, a move that could lead to the end of the agreement. "The European governments have underlined the nuclear deal's issue and condemned the U.S. president's remarks," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, according to comments posted on his official website. "We welcome this approach but it is not enough that they only tell him not to tear up the deal." Since the nuclear accord, European aviation consortium Airbus has signed billions of dollars in sales agreements with Iran. Europe should stand up against [US’s] practical measures and they should refrain commenting about our defensive capabilities,” he said referring to EU’s repeated concerns over Tehran’s missile programme.
– If President Trump thinks the Iran nuclear deal should be scrapped, the ayatollah seems happy to oblige. "If the US tears up the deal, we will shred it," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday in a speech to students, per Reuters. He was referring to President Trump's decision last week not to recertify the deal struck under the Obama administration. Trump's move doesn't mean the US is withdrawing—instead he essentially turned that decision over to Congress. In his own speech, Khamenei unleashed a torrent of criticism against Trump. "I don't want to waste our time to respond to the rants and whoppers of the foul-throated president of the United States," the Guardian quotes him as saying. (Translations differ slightly in various accounts.) "Everyone should know that once again America will receive a slap in its mouth and will be defeated by the people of Iran." The AP's account has the ayatollah referring to the Trump administration as "mentally retarded." Other nations are part of the nuclear accord, but Khamenei suggested that a US withdrawal would effectively kill it. And he seemed to be urging other parties, especially in Europe, to stand up to the US. "European states stressed their backing for the deal and condemned Trump," he said, per the Hill. "We welcomed this, but it is not enough to ask Trump not to rip up the agreement. Europe needs to stand against practical measures (taken) by America." The next big move may be up to Congress, which has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions that were lifted by the agreement.