China says Iran’s foreign minister will visit the country from Friday to Saturday, a day after the Trump administration blacklisted virtually all of Iran’s financial sector in the latest step aimed at the oil-rich country’s economy.

In a brief announcement, China’s Foreign Ministry said only that Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was visiting at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. China has been a staunch Iranian ally and remains a party to the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement from which the U.S. has withdrawn while unilaterally reinstituting punishing sanctions on Iran.

Thursday’s U.S. move hits 18 Iranian banks that had thus far escaped the bulk of reimposed U.S. sanctions and subjects foreign, non-Iranian financial institutions to penalties for doing business with them. That effectively cuts them off from the international financial system.

The blacklisting has been opposed by European nations because it will open up their biggest banks and other companies to U.S. penalties for conducting business with Iran that had previously been allowed.

Zarif reacted angrily to the designations, calling them a “crime against humanity” at a time of global crisis. The move comes as the U.S. has stepped up efforts to kill the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by steadily increasing pressure on through sanctions on its oil sales, blacklisting top government officials and killing a top general in an air strike.

Almost the entire rest of the world has vowed to ignore the latest U.S. sanctions but violating them will come with significant risk of losing access to the U.S. financial system.

The Chinese ministry said Indonesia’s presidential special envoy for China, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, and Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. are visiting Beijing at the same time as Zarif. There was no indication whether they will meet with Wang as a group.

Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-iran-foreign-minister-to-visit-china-following-us-sanctions/

The post Iran foreign minister to visit China following U.S. sanctions first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Tensions between the United States and the European Union over Iran soared into the open Tuesday (25 September) after the Europeans announced plans for a legal framework to preserve business with Tehran and evade new US sanctions.

In rhetorical exchanges that brought back memories of the feud over the 2003 Iraq invasion, the United States denounced the Europeans who in turn made clear they would not back down on diplomacy.

Britain, France and Germany – along with Russia and China – had all pleaded unsuccessfully for President Donald Trump to remain in the six countries’ 2015 accord with Iran on ending its nuclear program.

Full US sanctions are set to hit Iran in November and the country’s economy is already taking a beating.

After talks Monday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the Europeans would set up a “legal entity” for businesses to transfer money without coming under Washington’s scanner.

The 2015 accord is in the global interest, Mogherini insisted, pointing to UN inspectors’ findings that Iran is in compliance.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, addressing a pressure group on the sidelines of annual UN meetings, said he was “disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed” by the EU announcement.

“This is one of the of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security,” Pompeo said in a speech that was interrupted several times by anti-war protesters.

“By sustaining revenues to the regime, you are solidifying Iran’s ranking as the number-one state sponsor of terror,” said Pompeo, who quipped that Iran’s “corrupt ayatollahs” and elite Revolutionary Guards had to be “laughing this morning.”

‘Hell to pay’

John Bolton, Trump’s hawkish national security adviser, mocked the European Union for its lack of detail on the planned mechanism.

“The European Union is strong on rhetoric and weak on follow-through,” he told the United Against a Nuclear Iran campaign.

“We do not intend to allow our sanctions to be evaded by Europe or anybody else,” he said.

Bolton also issued unsubtle warnings to Iran’s leaders: “We are watching, and we will come after you.”

“If you cross us, our allies or our partners, if you harm our citizens, if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, there will be hell to pay.”

Bolton has denied that the United States is seeking to overthrow the regime but before taking office had called for efforts to destabilize the country.

Macron defends nuclear deal

The feud came as Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the United Nations General Assembly, offering diametrically opposed messages.

Trump, while vowing that the United States is determined to act alone, urged all nations to isolate Iran – whose arch-enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel are close to his administration.

Rouhani voiced regret that the deal, negotiated under former president Barack Obama, had become a “toy” of US domestic politics and accused Trump of seeking to overthrow his government.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for continued sales of oil by Iran, saying the flow would lower global prices and also benefit peace efforts.

“What will bring a real solution to the situation in Iran and what has already stabilized it? The law of the strongest? Pressure from only one side? No!” Macron said in his address.

The French President said the nuclear deal put Western powers in a stronger position to raise other concerns highlighted by Washington including Iran’s support of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Heiko Maas: “Strong unity” with Iran against US sanctions

The Europeans highlight that UN inspectors have repeatedly found that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 deal, under which it scraps the bulk of its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters there was “strong unity” with Iran on minimizing the impact of US sanctions.

Nonetheless, a number of prominent European businesses, including French energy giant Total and German automaker Daimler, have already said they will exit Iran to avoid US sanctions.

Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/us-disturbed-and-deeply-disappointed-by-eu-over-iran-sanctions/1274209/

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Last Updated Jul 23, 2018 5:20 AM EDT

WASHINGTON — President Trump warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani early Monday that he will face dire consequences for threatening the United States. Mr. Trump tweeted in all capital letters about the dangers to Iran of making hostile threats after Rouhani said Sunday, “American must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

Within hours, Iranian state-owned news agency IRNA dismissed Mr. Trump’s tweet, describing it as a “passive reaction” to Rouhani’s remarks.

The agency, a government mouthpiece, also said Monday that Mr. Trump’s comment was only mimicking and copying Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had in the past warned the West to “never threaten an Iranian.”

Mr. Trump earlier this year pulled the United States out of the international dealmeant to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon and ordered increased American sanctions.

Rouhani had warned Mr. Trump Sunday to stop “playing with the lion’s tail” and threatening Iran, “or else you will regret it.”

Mr. Trump has suggested Iranian leaders are “going to call me and say ‘let’s make a deal'” but Iran has rejected talks.

Rouhani has previously lashed out against Mr. Trump for threatening to re-impose the sanctions, as well as for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and banning travel to the U.S. from certain Muslim-majority countries.

Mr. Trump’s early Monday tweet suggested he has little patience with the trading of hostile messages with Iran.

Mr. Trump has a history of firing off heated tweets that seem to quickly escalate long-standing disputes with leaders of nations at odds with the U.S.

In the case of North Korea, the public war of words cooled quickly and gradually led to the high profile summit and denuclearization talks.

Of the tweet by Mr. Trump, the Reuters news service says, “The escalation in rhetoric came as the Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.”

In California Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was strongly critical of Tehran.

He called the religious leaders of Iran “hypocritical holy men” who amassed vast sums of wealth while allowing their people to suffer, part of a highly critical broadside issued as the republic approached the 40th anniversary of its Islamic revolution and the U.S. prepared to reimpose the economic sanctions.

In a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Pompeo castigated Iran’s political, judicial and military leaders, too, accusing several by name of participating in widespread corruption. He also said the government has “heartlessly repressed its own people’s human rights, dignity and fundamental freedoms.”

He said despite poor treatment by their leaders, “the proud Iranian people are not staying silent about their government’s many abuses.”

“And the United States under President Trump will not stay silent either. In light of these protests and 40 years of regime tyranny, I have a message for the people of Iran: The United States hears you,” he said. “The United States supports you. The United States is with you.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Mr. Trump for his “strong stance” on Iran.

Netanyahu said Mr. Trump and his secretary of state were taking a clear position against “Iranian aggression” after years in which the “regime was pampered by world powers.”

The Israeli prime minister spoke at his weekly Cabinet meeting Monday, after Mr. Trump’s tweet.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Monday that the president was responding to Iran and that he’s “not going to allow them to continue to make threats against America. If anybody is inciting anything look no further than to Iran.”

Asked if he had consulted with this national security team before tweeting the edict, Sanders said that the president consults with his national security team “on a daily basis.”

National security adviser John Bolton said in a statement on Monday that he had spoken to Mr. Trump over the last several days, “and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.”

A high-ranking Iranian officer says Mr. Trump’s Monday warning was nothing but “psychological warfare.”

Gen. Gholam Hossein Gheibparvar, the chief of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer Basij force, also said Monday that Mr. Trump “won’t dare” take any military action against Iran. Gheibparvar’s comments were reported by the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh told The Associated Press he doubted it would come to a military confrontation between Iran and the United States, despite the escalating rhetoric.

Falahatpisheh says Mr. Trump and his Iranian counterpart “express themselves through speeches since diplomatic channels are closed” as the two countries haven’t had diplomatic relations since 1979.

He says that unlike North Korea, “Iran never moved toward a nuclear bomb” and that therefore, “Iran is angry since Trump responded to Tehran’s engagement diplomacy by pulling the U.S. out of the nuclear deal.”

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-warns-iran-all-caps-tweet-stop-threatening-us/

[Disclaimer]

The post Trump warns Iran’s president in all-caps tweet to stop threatening U.S. first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Trump administration yesterday demanded that Iran make wholesale changes in its military and regional policies or face “the strongest sanctions in history.” The comments came as Washington tries to increase pressure on Tehran after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the international nuclear deal.

“I will travel on to Washington and meet Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, and use the opportunity to talk to him directly about this,” Maas said when he was asked by reporter about the Iran deal at the end of a Group of 20 meeting in Argentina’s capital.

In a speech yesterday, Pompeo called Iran out for a wide range of “malign activities” apart from its nuclear program and demanded the negotiation of a new deal that goes far beyond the single focus of the 2015 agreement and that would have the status of a formal treaty.

The 2015 deal concluded under the Obama administration dealt only with the nuclear program and was not a treaty but rather a U.N.-endorsed executive agreement between the parties.

Maas said Germany was not surprised by Pompeo’s speech because it “contained many elements” of the statement issued by Trump.

“Iran is in our wider neighborhood, and since we don’t see any better alternative at present, this is why we don’t want to leave the deal,” Haas said.

“We don’t want Iran to engage in a nuclear weapons program. This affects immediate security interests of Germany and security interests of Europe.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter yesterday to criticize Pompeo’s speech, calling U.S. diplomacy a “sham” that is “imprisoned by delusions & failed policies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/germany-foreign-minister-to-meet-pompeo-over-iran-deal-118052200062_1.html

The post Germany foreign minister to meet Pompeo over Iran deal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel’s defense minister Avigdor Liberman issued a stark threat to Iran through Saudi Arabia’s Elaph news outlet on Thursday, warning the Islamic regime that its days are numbered and asserting that if it were to attack Tel Aviv, Israel would retaliate with an attack against Tehran.

“These are the final days of the Iranian regime,” Liberman said during an interview with the London-based news portal. “Israel doesn’t want war…but if Iran attacks Tel Aviv, we will hit Tehran”.

“Every outpost in which we see Iran positioning militarily in Syria, we will destroy, and we will not allow this no matter what the price,” he added.

Liberman’s interview with the Saudi-owned outlet came as tensions brew between Iran and its main rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia on multiple fronts, with analysts warning that the Middle East power players could be entering an escalatory spiral of proxy fights that threatens to destabilize the entire region.

While Saudi Arabia and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations, behind the scenes improvements in their ties have accelerated in recent years over a multitude of shared interests — prime among them stemming Iran’s growing influence in the region.

Both countries see Iran as their biggest outside threat and the United States as their key ally, and both see danger from armed Islamist extremists.

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman watching military drills in the kingdom’s eastern region fo Dhahran in a handout picture provided by the palace on April 16, 2018

BANDAR AL-JALOUD (Saudi Royal Palace/AFP)

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has presented Shiite-dominated Iran as seeking control of the whole region and earlier this month gave unprecedented recognition to Israel’s “right” to existwhile extolling the possibility of future cooperation with the Jewish state.

The powerful Crown Prince previously warned that if Iran were to ever develop a nuclear bomb his country would quickly follow suit and said that Saudi Arabia was not prepared to accept any of the risks posed by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Israel has expressed similar concerns over the accord, the fate of which is to be decided by US President Donald Trump in May, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Washington to either “fix it or nix it.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday lambasted Arab nations who maintain friendly ties with Israel, saying that they “bring misery to Muslims.”

“Friendship with the unbelievers brings misery to Muslims, like the friendship some Muslim states have with the Zionist regime, exchanging kind words and establishing economic or political relations,” Khamenei wrote in a tweet.

In this picture released by the office of the Iranian supreme leader on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to his supporters during his visit to Mashhad, 900 km (540 miles) east of Tehran, Iran

Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

He called on Muslims to unite against American “bullying”, slamming countries for aligning with the United States without explicitly naming them.

“Unwise and reactionary governments of certain countries have entered into wars against other countries,” Khamenei said. “Look at the calamity Yemenis are afflicted with! Their wedding celebrations turn into mourning ceremonies: People are bombarded on streets, at bazaars and mosques.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia are backing opposite sides of a war raging in Yemen.

Liberman is currently in Washington D.C. where he is set to meet his US counterpart, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and US National Security Adviser John Bolton, with Iran and Syria expected to dominate the security chiefs’ talks.

Liberman’s unusually explicit threat published in Elaph followed an April 9 air strike on the Iran-operated T-4 airbase in Syria, which killed 14 people including seven Iranian personnel.

Israel did not claim responsibility, but the raid was widely seen as its first direct attack on Iranian assets and a worrying sign of how Syria’s seven-year conflict could escalate into a wider regional war.

Iran has vowed on several occasions to retaliate for the deadly strike on its forces.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman at a local government conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday February 14 2018.

Ariel Harmoni/Ministry of Defense

Liberman’s interview, while rare, is not the first time a senior Israeli official has taken to Elaph — which runs interviews with Israeli officials for the Arabic-speaking word — to warn of the Iranian threat.

Israel Defense Force (IDF) chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot became the first senior Israeli military official to be interviewed by the Saudi-owned publication in January 2016, telling Elaph that there is a “complete consensus” between Israel and Saudi Arabia on the issue of mutual arch-rival Iran, and that Jerusalem is ready to share intelligence with one of the world’s most powerful Muslim states.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz was interviewed by Elaph a month later, during which he threatened to send Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah “back to the stone age” if they dared to fire missiles at Israel.

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Source: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/173255-180426-liberman-to-saudi-media-if-iran-attacks-tel-aviv-israel-will-attack-tehran

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The post Lieberman to Saudi media: If Iran attacks Tel Aviv, Israel will attack Tehran first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The rumblings of an open conflict between Israel and Iran in Syria are growing louder. When President Trump launched yet another one-off missile salvo against the Syrian regime, it came on the heels of a suspected April 9 Israeli strike on an Iranian facility at a Syrian air base, which drew howls of condemnation from the regime’s patrons in Moscow and Tehran.

Though Israel didn’t acknowledge responsibility for the attack, it fit a familiar pattern. Since 2012, the Israelis are believed to have launched more than 100 strikes on suspected Iranian-linked positions in Syria. Israeli officials privately argue that these measures are necessary to prevent a permanent Iranian threat on their borders and stymie the flow of weaponry to Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

“No matter the price, we will not allow a noose to form around us,” Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio over the weekend. But he cautioned against talk of outright hostilities. “I hope not,” he said when asked whether war was imminent. “I think that our primary role is to prevent war, and that requires concrete, real deterrence as well as readiness to act.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made similar appeals for calm in a Sunday interview with CBS News, though he accused the Israelis of escalating “tension by violating Syrian airspace.”

“I do not believe that we are headed towards regional war. But I do believe that, unfortunately, Israel has continued its violations with international law, hoping to be able to do it with impunity because of the U.S. support and trying to find smokescreens to hide behind,” Zarif said.

Still, Zarif warned that Israel was playing a risky game. “They should expect that if they continue to violate territorial integrity of other states, there’ll be consequences,” he said. “The easiest answer would be to stop — to stop these acts of aggression, to stop these incursions.”

But the Israelis have made clear that an entrenched Iranian presence in Syria marks a new red line. They point to the new threat of Iranian drones, potentially armed with explosives, entering Israeli airspace, as well as the old threat of rockets launched from southern Lebanon. The April 9 strike, according to one account, was Israel’s first direct attack on Iranian equipment and personnel and killed a senior Iranian drone commander.

Last week, the Israeli military leaked details and satellite images of the existence of an Iranian “air force” in Syria, including civilian planes they claimed were ferrying shipments of arms. The leak was supposed to signal to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the powerful military organization that dominates Iran’s foreign policy decisions, that Israel had new targets already in sight should the Iranians or their proxies attack.

From the Iranian perspective, their presence in Syria is a legitimate defense of their beleaguered ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. And they see their capacity to threaten Israel from next door as a potential deterrent against a long-standing regional foe.

“Israeli leaders frequently threaten to bomb Iran, so having strong military proxies near Israel’s borders gives Iran some protection,” wrote Ben Hubbard and David Halbfinger of the New York Times. “If Israel attacks Iran, the thinking goes, it knows it can expect a painful response from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and perhaps from other militias now operating in Syria.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds up what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down over Israel while speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 18. (Lennart Preiss/Munich Security Conference /Agence France-Presse)

The deepening tensions come at a time of growing discontent within the Islamic Republic. A tanking economy has blown the lid on popular frustration with the regime and even prompted Zarif’s putative boss, President Hassan Rouhani, to complain about the costly war effort in Syria. But the prospect of broader confrontation with Israel — and the likely upcoming drama over Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers — may persuade regime hard-liners that now is the time to circle the wagons.

“The shadow war has come to light after the decision by the Iranian leadership to proceed with the IRGC’s plans to establish permanent bases in Syria. This was not a unanimous decision,” wrote Anshel Pfeffer in the Times of London. “The faction in Tehran led by the country’s president, Hassan Rouhani, is in favor of investing in Iran’s domestic economy the huge amounts of money these bases will cost. But the IRGC has the ear of the nation’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and it is keen to capitalize on the investment it has made in propping up the Assad regime for the past seven years.”

The way forward is treacherous. “Iran is determined to entrench its positions in Syria, and Israel is determined to prevent them,” said Amos Yadlin, a former commander of Israeli military intelligence, to Pfeffer.

He suggested that Russia, whose forces help prop up the regime’s air defenses and whose diplomats are key interlocutors to both the Iranians and the Israelis, will play a critical role. “Conflict is inevitable unless Putin steps in to prevent it,” Yadlin said. But recent events suggest that the Russians have limited influence over Iran and are more concerned about reinforcing the Syrian regime.

At the same time, some foreign policy figures in Washington seem keen on letting Israel continue its covert campaign against the Iranians. They see Israeli strikes as necessary at a time when President Trump wants to disengage from the Syrian conflict and outsource the stabilization of the country to Iran’s Sunni Arab rivals.

But other experts contend that this does not amount to a real strategy. “There is a pathway to containing and deterring Iran in Syria … but it requires more than just Israel’s itchy trigger finger and cheerleading from the sidelines by Arab autocracies,” wrote Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution, who argued for more robust diplomatic engagement from the Trump administration and cautioned against alienating allies by pulling out of the nuclear deal.

In February, the International Crisis Group issued a report warning that the current atmosphere of tensions made “miscalculation more likely” in Syria. Since then, the risks of an escalation have only intensified.

The post The shadow war between Israel and Iran takes center stage first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

 Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and then US secretary of state, John Kerry, at the UN in April 2016 after the JCPOA on Iran’s nuclear programme was implemented. Photograph: Andrew Gombert/EPA

Iran’s top diplomat has issued a stark warning to Donald Trump that if he follows through on his threat to scrap the 2015 nuclear agreement in three weeks’ time he will have to “face the consequences” that will not be “pleasant” for the United States.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, painted a bleak picture of the prospects for survival of the nuclear deal, which Trump has threatened to tear up on 12 May by refusing to waive a set of sanctions – a move that is integral to the agreement. Zarif indicated that should the US effectively pull out, Iran would refuse to stay inside the deal alongside the Europeans, calling that option “highly unlikely”.

An option actively being considered by Tehran, by contrast, was to withdraw entirely from the deal by returning to uranium enrichment. Other proposals being floated in the Iranian parliament, Zarif said, involved more “drastic” measures – though he would not specify what those entailed.

In an interview with reporters at an Iranian official residence overlooking New York’s Central Park, Zarif said that the Trump administration had the “option to kill the deal, but they have to face the consequences … We will make our decision based on our national security interest when the time comes, but whatever it is it will not be very pleasant for the United States, I can say that.”

Trump indicated in January that he would refuse to sign the sanctions waiver when it came up for its next renewal on 12 May unless Iran agreed to accept a raft of new restrictions. But Zarif made it clear that the Iranian regime had no intention of accepting any new demands, and turned the argument around by accusing Washington of already violating the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He accused the US of doing everything in its power to prevent Iran from engaging economically with the rest of the world, thus blocking Tehran from benefitting from the easing of sanctions permitted under JCPOA. He said that and other moves by the US amounted to a breach of the deal that had been going on for the past 15 months.

“I don’t think that a country that has been in breach for at least the last 15 months is in a position to make any new demands,” he said.

Zarif is in New York to attend a UN meeting on peace-building. In the course of a six-day stay in the city he will have a one-on-one audience with the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres.

As the final countdown begins to the next sanctions waiver deadline, and amid Trump’s grand posturing, European states are scrambling to see what can be done to salvage matters should the US president stand by his word and pull the rug out from under the deal. But Zarif gave very little sense of hope that anything would be possible.

He said it was “highly unlikely” that Iran would stay inside the JCPOA if the US effectively pulled out. “It’s very important for Iran to receive the benefits of the agreement – there’s no way that Iran would do a one-sided implementation of it.”

He said France and Germany could try and persuade the US to deflect from the collision course it was on, but he predicted such efforts would be “fruitless”. And he warned of the danger to world peace posed by Trump’s stance.

“The US is sending a very dangerous message to the people of Iran and the people of the world. It says you never come to an agreement with the US.

“The situation is creating an impression globally that agreements don’t matter.”

The Iranian regime has been heavily criticised in recent months for its role in propping up the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, despite his complicity in the death of thousands of civilians and his willingness to use chemical weapons against his own people. Zarif insisted that Iran was not engaged in the Syrian civil war to assist Assad but to combat the threat of extremist groups, notably Isis.

He went on to question claims by western governments that Assad had launched poison gas attacks against the Syrian town of Douma earlier this month, killing at least 40 civilians. Zarif said there was insufficient evidence from the actual sites of the attack to reach that conclusion – while glossing over complaints that international inspectors had been prevented from reaching Douma for several days by the Syrian regime and Russia.

Zarif faced strong questioning about the apparent build-up of permanent Iranian military bases in Syria, and whether the long-term ambition was to prepare for conflict with Israel. He denied there were any Iranian bases inside the country, claiming that his nation’s presence was limited to military advisers stationed at existing Syrian bases.

He also denied that Iran operated aerial drones inside the country.

When asked about the recent Israeli airstrike against the T4 Iranian base east of Homs earlier this month that appeared designed to reduce Iran’s aerial capabilities, he said: “T4 is not an Iranian base, we don’t have a base in Syria.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/22/it-will-not-be-very-pleasant-iran-warns-if-trump-scraps-nuclear-deal

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The head of Iran’s army, Abdolrahim Mousavi, threatened to “annihilate” Israel on Saturday as tensions escalated between the two countries.

At a ceremony in Tehran, Mr Mousavi warned that any acts of war against his country would put his country on the offensive.

“Hands are on the trigger and missiles are ready and will be launched at any moment that the enemy tries to carry out its sinister plot against (our) lands,” Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.

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