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Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to YouTube on Tuesday to dismiss US sanctions and Washington’s demands of change from Tehran as “absurd, unlawful and fundamentally flawed”.
“The US administration appears to believe that imposing draconian sanctions on Iran will bring about such pain to our nation that it will force us to submit to its will,” Zarif said in a video message, posted in English and Persian.
“We have weathered difficult times in the face of 40 years of American hostility relying solely on our own resources, and today we and our partners across the globe will ensure that our people are least affected by this indiscriminate badault,” he said.
Washington’s decision to scrap the multi-nation nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions — with the last tranche hitting on Monday — was “pushing it further into global isolation”.
The Persian version said the US “will regret this unwise move” and emphasized that the sanctions were aimed at “separating people from each other and from the establishment”.
“President (Donald) Trump’s predecessors also began crafting their Iran policy with similar bravado but came around to accepting and respecting the reality of Iran as they became more experienced in office,” he added.
The United States would be better off rethinking its “unconditional support” for Saudi Arabia and Israel, which has “blinded the US to their appalling atrocities”, Zarif said.
Israel had long opposed the Iran nuclear deal, saying it was too limited in scope and time-frame.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called the snapback of US sanctions against his country’s arch-enemy a “historic day” that will reduce Tehran’s “aggression” in the region.
“Today is the day the US under President Trump’s leadership imposed extremely harsh sanctions on Iran, the harshest sanctions imposed on Iran since the effort to curb its aggression began,” he added.
The measures targeting Iranian oil and the financial sectors were described by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as “the toughest sanctions ever placed” against Iran and are set to strangulate the Iranian economy in an effort to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
The financial penalties also aimed to significantly reduce Iran’s oil exports — which have already fallen by around one million barrels a day since May — and cut it off from international finance.
Israel’s intelligence services said they would be actively involved in helping the United States impose the sanctions against Iran.
See also:
Netanyahu calls start of new Iran sanctions a ‘historic day’
Iran will ‘proudly bypbad’ US sanctions: Rouhani
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