Trump has created nuclear insecurity instead of nuclear security: Iran's security council chief Mohsen Rezaei

Tehran [Iran], August 23 (ANI): Iran's Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Mohsen Rezaei, on Saturday (local time) accused US President Donald Trump of creating "nuclear insecurity" instead of strengthening global nuclear security, claiming that Washington's actions against Tehran have increased countries' interest in acquiring nuclear weapons.
In an interview with IRIB, Rezaei said, "Instead of nuclear security, Trump has created nuclear insecurity."
He claimed that Iran had complied with international nuclear regulations, remained a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and allowed inspections under international safeguards.
"Trump's stupidity in attacking Iran increased the world's desire for the atomic bomb, especially when they saw that membership in the Atomic Energy Organization and the NPT was ineffective in preventing an American attack," Rezaei said.
"Iran has accepted and implemented all international safeguards, has become a member of the NPT, and has submitted to inspections," Rezaei said, adding that Iran was "ahead of all other countries" in its commitment to nuclear energy regulations.
Rezaei's remarks came amid escalating tensions after US President Donald Trump announced what he called an "Economic D-Day" campaign against Iran, describing it as the "most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country."
Trump said the campaign would involve economic warfare and isolation measures targeting Iran's economic lifelines, including oil smuggling networks, financial transfers, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies.
"Iran will never have a nuclear weapon," Trump had said earlier, while warning that Washington had "very draconian sanctions" available against Tehran.
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref criticised Trump's economic pressure campaign, saying US sanctions would not change the Iranian people's resolve.
"The government will not allow America's economic terrorism to target the economic stability and livelihoods of the people. The experience of the Islamic Revolution has shown that economic pressure is incapable of altering the will of the Iranian nation and instead yields the opposite result," Aref said in a post on X.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi also rejected Trump's announcement, calling the latest US pressure campaign "bound to fail" and arguing that previous sanctions policies had not forced Tehran to change its position.
"The so-called 'Economic D-Day' is a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs," Araghchi had earlier said.
Trump has maintained that Washington's measures are aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and has urged US allies to join efforts to isolate Tehran.
The US President also cited concerns over Iran's nuclear programme and said Washington would decide its next course of action based on future developments, including the possibility of further sanctions.
Iranian officials maintain that previous US sanctions strategies failed to force Iran to alter its course and argue that further economic pressure would produce the opposite effect. (ANI)