Iran says Trump is wrong if he thinks Tehran regime will collapse

MUNICH, Feb 16: Iran's foreign minister said Sunday that US President Donald Trump is receiving bad advice if he believes an American "maximum pressure" campaign against his country will cause the government in Tehran to collapse.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a group of top defence officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference that the information provided to the president has dissuaded Trump from accepting offers from other leaders to mediate between Washington and Tehran.
"President Trump has been convinced that we are about to collapse so he doesn't want to talk to a collapsing regime," Zarif said.
To support his argument, the Iranian minister cited Trump's decision to pull out unilaterally in 2018 from Iran's nuclear deal with the US and other world powers. Trump said the landmark 2015 accord didn't address Iran's ballistic missile program or regional activities and needed to be renegotiated.
Since then, the Trump administration's re-imposition of US sanctions in a campaign of so-called "maximum pressure" have taken a severe toll on the Iranian economy and sent Iran's currency plunging.    -AP