Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday slammed as "economic terrorism" the sanctions reimposed on Tehran by the United States following its withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear agreement.

"Unlawful unilateral sanctions in themselves constitute a form of economic terrorism and a breach of the right to development," he said in his address to the U.N. General Assembly.

"The economic war that the United States has initiated under the rubric of new sanctions not only targets the Iranian people but also entails harmful repercussions for the people of other countries, and that war has caused a disruption in the state of global trade," he added.

(Getty/Kyodo)

On May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear accord and pledged "the highest level of economic sanctions" against Tehran in a bid to push its leaders back to the negotiating table for a more stringent deal to limit the country's nuclear and other activities.

Under the deal struck between Iran and six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States under Trump's Democratic predecessor Barack Obama -- Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

Washington reinstated certain economic sanctions against Iran last month to push Tehran toward a tougher nuclear deal.

Without naming Trump, Rouhani on Tuesday accused him of having "xenophobic tendencies resembling a Nazi disposition" and suggested the U.S. leader's hostility to "multilateralism" shows his personal lack of intelligence.

"Confronting multilateralism is not a sign of strength, rather a symptom of the weakness of intellect -- it betrays an inability in understanding a complex and interconnected world," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump slammed Iran over its nuclear program and support for militant groups in the Middle East, urging all nations to isolate the regime in Tehran as long as its "aggression" continues.

In his address to the General Assembly, Trump also defended the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers as well as the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran, saying, "The Iran deal was a windfall for Iran's leaders."