Tillerson Slammed for Deceptive Remarks

Iran lashed out at "impudent, deceptive and interfering" remarks by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about what he called the need for the Iranian people to take back control of their government.

"The totalitarian and arrogant leaders of the United States must know that their attempt to create divisions between the people and the political and military authorities in our country is a desperate and fruitless attempt," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Thursday, Press TV reported.

The official was responding to Tillerson's Wednesday remarks in New Delhi, India, that Washington's "fight is not with the Iranian people", but with what he described as "the revolutionary regime".

"We know there are strong feelings and values inside of Iran that we want to promote in terms of one day the Iranian people being able to retake control of their government," the top US diplomat claimed.

Qasemi said Tillerson's remarks "once again depicted the true face of the United States."

Iranians got furious this month after US President Donald Trump called the country a "terrorist nation" and used "Arabian Gulf" to refer to the body of waters that is internationally known as the Persian Gulf.

The outrageous remarks prompted Iranians of all stripes to take to social media and state that they were united in defending their country after Trump refused to certify a landmark nuclear agreement and hinted at consequences.

The spokesman hit out at contradictory postures of US leaders, saying their "only consequence is strengthening solidarity and national unity, and increasing hatred and abhorrence of the policies of the ignorant American statesmen."

Qasemi also touched on the history of Washington's enmity with Iran even when the country was a close ally of the United States before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, including its role in a coup that brought down the legally elected Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq.

"American statesmen, who through the 1953 coup against a legitimate government and the all-out support for the dictatorial regime of the Shah, were an accomplice to that regime's crimes and committed the most crimes against our people under the guise of supporting the Iranian people since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution [of 1979]".