President Donald Trump used the annual presidential statement marking the Persian holiday of Nowruz to criticize Iran’s government and military leaders with sharp-tongued language rarely before seen in a celebratory presidential message.
“The history of Nowruz is rooted in Iran, where for millennia a proud nation has overcome great challenges by the strength of its culture and the resilience of its people,” Trump said in a statement Monday. “Today, the Iranian people face another challenge: rulers who serve themselves instead of serving the people.”
In the message marking the start of the spring New Year’s festival, Trump said he was announcing that the Treasury Department would issue guidance “reaffirming America’s support for the free flow of information to the citizens of Iran” and that the U.S. would hold the regime accountable for cyberattacks abroad.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later issued a separate statement underscoring that commitment.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded with a tweet that appeared to attack Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who planned to visit the White House Tuesday.
“With millennia of civilization, Iranians have the historical depth to ignore the absurd insults of an arriviste leader one whose entire command of history, politics and diplomacy can be condensed into 280 characters,” Zarif said Tuesday on Twitter. “But even so, still superior to his juvenile royal stooge.”
Nowruz, which means “new day” in Persian, has its origins in the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism and is also celebrated in Afghanistan, Turkey, India and other countries.
Trump specifically attacked Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying it had engaged in corruption and mismanagement of the Iranian economy.
“Twenty-five centuries ago, Darius the Great asked God to protect Iran from three dangers: hostile armies, drought, and falsehood,” the president said in the statement. “Today, the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) represents all three.”
Trump highlighted the high unemployment rate among Iranian youth and said “the average Iranian family is 15 percent poorer today than it was 10 years ago.”
“Ordinary Iranians struggle economically and find it difficult to celebrate holidays like Nowruz,” Trump said before adding: “may light prevail over darkness in this New Year and may the Iranian people enjoy a new day of peace, prosperity and joy.”
