Special to WorldTribune.com

The same Iranian president who has presided over “Death to America” chants in the streets of Teheran has gone public against Donald Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Dec. 9, without mentioning Trump’s name, said “under the pretext of fighting terrorism, some people are proposing that Muslims should not be permitted to enter other countries. We regret such remarks about Muslims,” Reuters reported.

Rouhani, who made the remarks during a cabinet meeting carried by Iranian state television, added that “this is while they themselves are among the sponsors and supporters of terrorism … and they are supporting terrorists.”

Trump, the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, appeared on CNN on Dec. 8 and defended his comments: “You’re going to have many more World Trade Centers if you don’t solve it (radical Islamic terrorism) – many, many more and probably beyond the World Trade Center.”

While France, Britain, Canada, the United Nations and Muslims in Asian countries and nearly all of Trump’s GOP rivals denounced his comments, a new poll showed 65 percent of GOP voters support them.

Rouhani’s claim that the United States supports “terrorism” has also been widely panned by analysts as Iran is one of the world’s leading sponsors of terrorism, including the Hizbullah group that has carried out attacks in Israel and several other countries.

A video released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office showed Rouhani overseeing “Death to America” chants during rallies in Teheran.

  2016 Presidential race, Donald Trump, Hassan Rouhani, Trump statement gets a rise out of Iran’s Rouhani, WorldTribune.com