Rather than focusing on the United States leaving the Iran nuclear agreement, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani must "follow the rules," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday.
"He's got to stop smuggling arms, stop all the meddling they're doing in the Middle East, their support of terrorism," Haley told "CBS This Morning," a day after President Donald Trump railed against the agreement during his speech to the UN Global Assembly. "We've got to see them stop with the ballistic missile testing. He is not keeping his end of the deal."
It will be Trump's "decision alone" whether or not the United States will certify the Iran deal, but if he chooses not to, "he's on grounds not to do that," said Haley."
Trump also commented during the speech that it is an "outrage" that nations would trade with North Korea, considering its pursuit of nuclear and ballistic weapons, but Haley said she believes he meant all nations who engage in such trade, not only China.
"What we're seeing is this is a country who is threatening its neighbors, threatening the United States, continuing to use ballistic testing," Haley said. "We have to stop every ounce of funding that they use to do bad things."
The ambassador also said Wednesday there are "lots of military options" the United States could use against North Korea, but "no one wants war. The president doesn't want war."
In his speech Tuesday, Trump warned that the United States will "totally destroy North Korea" if it attacks the U.S. or its allies, and Haley said the U.S. has been trying to work through dialogue to reach a resolution.
"We have said to Kim [Jong Un] multiple times, we don't want regime change," she told CBS, but North Korea has chosen not to quit working on weapons testing.
Haley, also appearing on "Good Morning America," told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that Trump was "being honest" in his blunt speech to the UN.
"People and countries don't want to hear it, but here is a man who continues to test ballistic missiles," said Haley. "He continues to test now hydrogen bombs. He continues to threaten our allies. He says he's going to destroy the United States to ashes and continue to send us gift packages to the United States. So if you want to talk about who's been giving the threats, it's certainly been the Kim regime."
She also said the international community "very much appreciated the blunt honest approach that the president took on North Korea as well as on Iran."
Further, Haley defended the president's use of his nickname for Kim, "Rocket Man," saying that it worked to bring attention to Kim.
"I'll tell you, George, it worked," she said. "I was talking to a president of an African country yesterday and he actually cited 'Rocket Man' back to me. So I will tell you that, look, this is a way of like, you know, getting people to talk about him but every other international community now is referring to him as 'Rocket Man.'"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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