President Donald Trump offered a Nowruz greeting to people around the world welcoming the start of spring while also blasting Iranian theocracy, terror sponsorship and corruption in a statement Monday.
Nowruz is the name for the Persian New Year.
"The history of Nowruz is rooted in Iran, where for millennia a proud nation has overcome great challenges by the strength of its culture and the resilience of its people," Trump said. "Today, the Iranian people face another challenge: rulers who serve themselves instead of serving the people."
"Twenty-five centuries ago, Darius the Great asked God to protect Iran from three dangers: hostile armies, drought, and falsehood. Today, the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) represents all three."
Trump has referred to the IRGC as "the Iranian supreme leader’s corrupt personal terror force."
"It is a hostile army that brutalizes and steals from the Iranian people to fund terrorism abroad," he said. "Since 2012, the IRGC has spent more than $16 billion of Iran’s wealth to prop up the Assad regime and support militants and terrorists in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
Trump also said the IRGC's mismanagement and corruption had elongated an ecological crisis affecting Iranian lives and the economy, and he stated "deceit has become official state policy."
The White House statement went on to say the average Iranian family is 15 percent poorer than it was a decade ago, with nearly 30 percent of Iran's youth unemployed.
"On behalf of the American people, may light prevail over darkness in this New Year, and may the Iranian people soon enjoy a new day of peace, prosperity, and joy," Trump said.
Trump nominated Mike Pompeo last week to take charge of the State Department in place of Rex Tillerson, who was fired due to several policy disagreements with the White House, chief among them an attempt to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.