Trump's genocidal taunts will not end Iran: Foreign minister Javad Zarif hits back
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'Try respect it works!' Javad Zarif added in the tweet.
Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday said that the "genocidal taunts" of US President Donald Trump will not "end Iran".
"Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. Economic terrorism and genocidal taunts won't 'end Iran'," Zarif wrote on Twitter.
Goaded by #B_Team, @realdonaldTrump hopes to achieve what Alexander, Genghis & other aggressors failed to do. Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. #EconomicTerrorism & genocidal taunts won't "end Iran". #NeverThreatenAnIranian. Try respect—it works!
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 20, 2019
"Try respect it works!" he added in the tweet.
Earlier in the day, Donald Trump on Twitter issued a warning to Iran suggesting that if the Islamic Republic attacks, it will be "end" of it.
"If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again," Trump said on Twitter.
Iran-US relations hit a new low last year as US Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed unilateral sanctions that had been lifted in exchange for Tehran scaling back its nuclear program.
Since then, tensions between Washington and Tehran have been on the rise. The tensions escalated further last week after the US deployed a carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over what it termed Iranian "threats." This account has been met with widespread scepticism outside the United States.
On Saturday, Zarif downplayed the prospect of a new war in the region saying Tehran opposed it and no party was under the "illusion" the Islamic republic could be confronted.
"We are certain... there will not be a war since neither we want war nor does anyone have the illusion they can confront Iran in the region," Mohammad Javad Zarif told state-run news agency IRNA at the end of a visit to China.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday called for an emergency regional talks to discuss the mounting Gulf tensions, saying that it does not want war with Iran but is ready to defend itself.