Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday decried the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions, which are set to go into force on Tuesday.
“US is waging the propaganda that it is in touch with Iran’s people and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu writes tweets and sheds crocodile tears every day,” Zarif said in statements cited by Iran’s ISNA news agency.
“You claim that you have connection with Iranian people but the first sanction that you re-imposed against Iran was related to airplane sales; airplanes that would have been used in favor of Iranian people,” he said.
The top Iranian diplomat said U.S. economic sanctions and threats would not force Iran to change its policies.
“Yes, we have been passing through a very critical period of time and U.S. sanctions and extortion may cause some problems,” Zarif said. “But the world is talking about an isolated U.S., not a lonely Iran.”
Earlier Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington will enforce sanctions against Iran.
In May, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a nuclear deal, which was signed in 2015 between Iran and the P5 1 group of nations (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany).
The nuclear deal places restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was ready to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani without preconditions.
Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, in a rare move after the two rivals broke relations in 2016."An informed diplomatic source said Sunday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to grant a visa to the head ... of Iran's interests section," IRNA reported. "Observers saw this... as a positive diplomatic step in the Tehran-Riyadh relations."The office is expected to be set up within the Swiss diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia, based on an agreement signed in 2017.
Saudi agrees to admit Iran diplomat to head office in kingdom
Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed on Sunday it had held war games in the Gulf over the past several days, saying they were aimed at "confronting possible threats" by enemies, the state news state news agency IRNA reported.U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday that the United States believed Iran had started carrying out naval exercises in the Gulf, apparently moving up the timing of annual drills amid heightened tensions with Washington."This exercise was conducted with the aim of controlling and safeguarding the safety of the international waterway and within the framework of the programme of the Guards' annual military exercises," Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif said, according to IRNA.The U.S. military’s Central Command on Wednesday confirmed it has seen increased Iranian naval activity. The activity extended to the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for oil shipments the Revolutionary Guards have threatened to block.Sharif "expressed satisfaction over the successful conduct of the Guards naval exercise, emphasising the need to maintain and enhance defence readiness and the security of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and to confront threats and potential adventurous acts of enemies," IRNA said.One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said possibly more than 100 vessels were involved in the drills, including small boats.U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the drills appeared designed to send a message to Washington, which is intensifying its economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran but so far stopping short of using the U.S. military to more aggressively counter Iran and its proxies.Iran has been furious over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of an international agreement on Iran's nuclear programme and re-impose sanctions on Tehran. Senior Iranian officials have warned the country would not easily yield to a renewed U.S. campaign to strangle Iran’s vital oil exports.But Iran did not appear interested in drawing attention to the drills. Iranian authorities had not commented on them earlier and several officials contacted by Reuters this week had declined to comment.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards says it held Gulf war games this week