Iranians Bemoans “crazy” Trump’s Mixed messages, a “Confused” President

President Donald Trump is a “crazy president” whose threats against Tehran aren’t going to work, a senior Iranian official said Monday, adding that if the President wants to talk, he’ll not only have to show some respect, but come up with a consistent message.

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Trump is “crazy” and his administration is “confused,” Iran’s director of foreign affairs for the country’s parliament, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, told CNN in an exclusive interview Monday. Hossein pointed to the US leader’s ongoing campaign to strangle Iran’s economy on the one hand and his requests for Iran to talk on the other.

“In his mind, Trump thinks he has a gun to Iran’s head with sanctions and he is trying to shut down our economy,” Amir-Abdollahian told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen. “This is all in his imagination. Now he wants us to call him? This is a crazy president!”

“Within the White House there is a lot of conflicting opinions,” Amir-Abdollahian continued, pointing to “warmongers” in the West Wing and naming national security adviser John Bolton. “Also, Trump is not quite balanced and stable in his decision making, so we are dealing with a confused White House. Iran receives various signals which show that no one knows who owns the White House.”

‘Self-contradictory’

As further evidence, Amir-Abdollahian added that “Trump’s tweets are self-contradictory.”
Just hours after the Iranian official made that observation to Pleitgen, Trump doubled down on the mixed messages by denying the US is trying to talk to Tehran at all. They day before, the President had threatened on Twitter that a fight with the US would be “the official end of Iran.”
“Fake News put out a typically false statement, without any knowledge that the United States was trying to set up a negotiation with Iran. This is a false report,” Trump tweeted Monday. “Iran will call us if and when they are ever ready. In the meantime, their economy continues to collapse – very sad for the Iranian people!”

Increased uranium enrichment

In response, Iran announced it would stop fully complying with the nuclear deal. On Monday, an Iranian energy official announced the country has increased its uranium enrichment fourfold and informed the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are set to brief US senators about the situation with Iran on Tuesday, according to a Senate official.
In what is seen as another attempt to establish a back channel to Iran, Pompeo spoke on the phone on May 15 with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has close ties to both Tehran and Washington and has functioned as a go-between in the past.

‘Try respect’

Amir-Abdollahian, signaled Monday that Iran isn’t entirely opposed to talking, it’s just a matter of how.
“Trump can discuss talking to Iran through a phone when he does not use the language of threat and force,” the parliamentarian told Pleitgen.

“He can talk about phoning us when he goes back to the nuclear agreement.”
Amir-Abdollahian said that Trump has “got no idea about the culture and mentality of the Iranian people” if he thinks threats will work against Iran.