President Hassan Rouhani of Iran used an appearance on Wednesday to once again attack Donald Trump, five days after he signed an executive order banning Iranian citizens from entering the United States. 'He is new to politics. He has been in a different world. It's a totally new environment to him,' said Rouhani. 'It will take him a long time and will cost the United States a lot, until he learns what is happening in the world.' Rouhani also made a clear reference to the Mexican border Trump plans to erect to keep citizens of that country out of the United States during his remarks, saying: 'Today is not a time for separating nations by walls.'
The Iranian leader delivered these comments at a ceremony marking National Day of Space Technology in Tehran and broadcast live on state television.
He did not only go after President Trump either, stating that the whole administration was dishonest for allowing the ban to be put in place.
Rouhani previously criticized Trump and the United States on Saturday, shortly after the ban was announced, saying: 'They have forgotten that the Berlin Wall collapsed many years ago. Even if there are walls between nations, they must be removed.'
President Trump announced on Friday afternoon while appearing at the Pentagon that he was preparing to reveal strict new measures that he said would prevent domestic terror attacks.
Later that day he signed an executive order banning citizens of seven Muslim nations from entering the United States. Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen were named alongside Iran in the order, which states that citizens from these counties will not be allowed into the US for at least 90 days. And refugee admission into the US from these seven nations has been suspended for at least 120 days.
Iran shot right back at the White House, stating the day after President Trump signed the ban that they would retaliate by keeping out American citizens. 'The US decision to restrict travel for Muslims to the US, even if for a temporary period of three months, is an obvious insult to the Islamic world and in particular to the great nation of Iran,' said the Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement. 'Despite the claims of combating terrorism and keeping American people safe, it will be recorded in history as a big gift to extremists and their supporters.'
The Ministry then went on to state that the country would take 'proportionate legal, consular and political action and ... will take reciprocal measures in order to safeguard the rights of its citizens until the time of the removal of the insulting restrictions of the government of the United States against Iranian nationals.'
There are currently over a million Iranians living in the United States as citizens who as a result of this ban would be unable to travel to their homeland.
President Trump will be going after Rouhani again as well, and likely very soon as he wants to renegotiate the nuclear pact that the Iranian president signed while Barack Obama was in office. He has called the pact 'the worst deal ever negotiated.' Rouhani seems to be not all that concerned however with Trump's threats, saying that the deal will continue to stand while speaking at a press conference just a few days before the inauguration. He said that the deal is in fact beneficial to the United States during his remarks and that Trump simply 'doesn't understand this.'
Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany were also part of the deal Rouhani point out too, adding that none of those countries have expressed an interest in scrapping the deal or restoring sanctions. 'There will be no negotiations on the nuclear deal,' said Rouhani. 'The deal has been finalized and it was approved in the U.N. Security Council.'
Rouhani, a moderate who has advocated greater openness toward the West, made waves back in 2013 when he spoke with Obama on the phone for 15 minutes in what was the first communication between the nations in over 30 years. He will be up for re-election in May, and said last month he does not believe the new administration in Washington would impact the vote.
