Mohammad Javad Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday welcomed the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will no longer serve as Israel’s Prime Minister once the new government is sworn in.

“Netanyahu has joined the disgraceful journey of his anti-Iran co-conspirators—Bolton, Trump and Pompeo—into the dustbin of history,” he tweeted.

“Iran continues to stand tall. This destiny has been repeated over several millennia for all those wishing Iranians harm. Time to change course,” added Zarif.

The Iranian Foreign Minister made similar comments in January, when former US President Donald Trump’s time in office concluded.

“Trump, Pompeo & Co. are relegated to the dustbin of history in disgrace. But the memories of Gen Soleimani & the 1000s murdered, maimed & starved of food & meds by Trump’s state—& economic—terrorism & crimes against humanity, will shine on,” he wrote on Twitter at the time.

“Perhaps new folks in DC have learned,” he added.

Netanyahu has consistently warned against Iran’s nuclear program and has been a vocal critic of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, from which the US withdrew in 2018.

That year, Israel got a hold of Iran’s nuclear archive, uncovering over 100,000 documents detailing Tehran’s nuclear program and proving that it is lying about its nuclear intentions.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/307448

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Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller has reversed his decision to redeploy the aircraft carrier Nimitz, keeping the vessel in the Persian Gulf after threats from Iran against President Trump.

“Due to the recent threats issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and other U.S. government officials, I have ordered the USS Nimitz to halt its routine redeployment,” said Miller in a statement released on Sunday.

“The USS Nimitz will now remain on station in the U.S. Central Command area of operations,” he added. “No one should doubt the resolve of the United States of America.”

Three days earlier, the carrier had been ordered to return home in a show of de-escalating tensions with Iranian leadership.

It is unclear what led to Miller’s reversal, but The New York Times notes that messaging from Iranian officials has increased in severity in the past few days.

The newspaper added that Trump administration officials indicated on Sunday that the decision was influenced by the upcoming week, which involves a Georgia runoff election and the certification of President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory, with the White House reportedly opposed to the image of an aircraft carrier moving away from the Middle East.

A senior military official told reporters last week that U.S. intelligence reports indicated that Iran might possibly seek revenge for the killing of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani by carrying out an attack on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of his death.

Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, accused Trump on New Year’s Eve of attempting to “fabricate pretext for war” with threats of retaliation.

Iran is suspected of being behind the December rocket attack against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest such attack in a decade.

Source: https://thehill.com/news-by-subject/defense-homeland-security/532484-pentagon-keeping-aircraft-carrier-in-persian-gulf

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Iran has vowed it won’t “fall into the trap” of scuppering any future talks with a new U.S. administration following the assassination of a top nuclear scientist.

“Iran’s scientific and defense policies won’t change because of the assassination of one scientist or general,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a statement Sunday posted on the government’s official website. The Islamic Republic “shouldn’t fall into the trap of linking the assassination to past nuclear negotiations,” he said.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a veteran physicist who played a major role in Iran’s nuclear research and defense activities, was killed in a bombing and shooting ambush outside Tehran on Friday. Iran has blamed Israel, which had accused Fakhrizadeh of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb project and hasn’t commented on the allegation.

Underscoring the support for diplomacy, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said while “Iran and the U.S. will continue to have fundamental differences,” the tension between Tehran and Washington needn’t continue after Trump is out of office.

“Under Trump’s presidency, Iran and U.S. tensions rose to a 40-year peak. It seems unnecessary for this situation to continue,” Zarif told the Entekhab news website in an interview on Sunday.

Both Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump oppose President-elect Joe Biden’s intention to rejoin the Obama-era nuclear accord if Tehran — which denies bomb-making ambitions — also returns to full compliance.

Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, considered attacking the country during his last few weeks in office but was dissuaded by senior aides, the New York Times reported. The killing of Fakhrizadeh, who will be buried in Tehran on Monday, could also complicate a return to the accord.

“This assassination will not remain unanswered, but our response won’t come at a time, place or shape they expect,” Rabiei said, referring to Israel and the U.S. “Iran sets the time and the place.”

Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, said the assassination will make it more difficult for Biden to re-enter the nuclear agreement with Iran.

“Fakhrizadeh was at the heart of the Iranian nuclear program,” he said. “Not only the brains but also the passion behind it, so his assassination is really a significant event.”

Mullen added he was hopeful that Biden “can actually reach in and calm the waters, but I think this heightens tension significantly.”

Friday’s incident tops a year of crisis and instability that started with Trump ordering the killing of a top Iranian general in a Jan. 3 drone strike in Baghdad. Iran retaliated with a missile strike on a U.S. base in Iraq that didn’t result in any fatalities. But its unintentional downing of a passenger plane above Tehran in the aftermath killed 176 people.

Hard-liners inside Iran are angry at President Hassan Rouhani for trying to keep the 2015 deal alive while attacks continue on Iran. The ultrahard-line Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published an opinion piece on Sunday calling for the northern Israeli city of Haifa to be attacked in retaliation.

“Assuming that the role of the Zionist regime in this great martyrdom can be proved, we can operationalize this threat,” the column said. “We should attack the port city of Haifa in such a way that in addition to destroying its facilities, heavy human casualties are also incurred so that our deterrence is optimized.”

The newspaper has made similar calls in the past and, while it reflects the views of the most radical elements of the Islamic Republic, its circulation is relatively small and it doesn’t necessarily represent pragmatists in the government and military.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/11/30/world/iran-us-nuclear-talks/

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A military strike against Iran by the United States or Saudi Arabia would result in “an all-out war,” the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Thursday, repeating his government’s denial of responsibility for an attack last week that damaged Saudi oil facilities and hampered the global flow of oil.

The Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are supported by Iran in their fight against a Saudi-led coalition, claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, but top American officials blamed Iran, and some within the Trump administration are advocating military retaliation.

The administration is still weighing how to react, but President Trump has appeared reluctant to order military action. Asked on Thursday about Mr. Zarif’s comments, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Mr. Trump wanted to find a peaceful path forward.

“We’d like a peaceful resolution, indeed,” he told reporters traveling with him in the United Arab Emirates before flying back to Washington after a two-day emergency trip. “We’re still striving to build out a coalition. I was here in an act of diplomacy while the foreign minister of Iran is threatening all-out war to fight to the last American.”

Mr. Pompeo said the United States, which withdrew last year from a nuclear agreement with Iran, planned to impose more sanctions, as Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday. “We have set about a course of action to deny Iran the capacity and the wealth to prevent them from conducting their terror campaigns,” Mr. Pompeo said. “And you can see from the events of last week there’s more work to do.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Pompeo accused Iran of committing an “act of war” with the aerial attacks. Saudi officials also displayed debris from drones and missiles that they said had been used in the attack, citing it as evidence of Iranian complicity while stopping short of directly blaming Tehran.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Mr. Zarif said, “This is agitation for war because it’s based on lies; it’s based on deception.” He did not specify what statements about the attacks had been untrue.

“I’m making a very serious statement that we don’t want war; we don’t want to engage in a military confrontation,” he added. “But we won’t blink to defend our territory.”

As for the Houthis, Mr. Zarif said: “I cannot have any confidence that they did it, because we just had their statement. I know that we didn’t do it.”

Analysts for the United Nations and Western governments have said that Iran supplies weapons to the Houthis, including sophisticated missiles and drones that have expanded the rebels’ offensive capabilities. But Mr. Pompeo said on Wednesday that intelligence gathered by the United States over the years did not show that Iran had supplied the Houthis with the kinds of weapons used in the Sept. 14 attack, which meant, he said, that the Houthis’ claim of responsibility was a misdirection effort.

“The intelligence community has high confidence that these were not weapons that would have been in the possession of the Houthis,” he said.

Saudi officials displayed on Wednesday what they said were parts from an Iranian cruise missile and drones used to attack its oil facilities.CreditAmr Nabil/Associated Press

American and Saudi officials have said that the strikes came from the north or northwest — in the direction of Iran or Iraq — and not from Yemen, which is to the south, though they have not provided clear evidence for that claim. Mr. Pompeo and the Iraqi government have said the strikes did not originate in Iraq, which has Shiite militias with ties to Iran.

On Wednesday, Mr. Pompeo met the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He flew to Abu Dhabi on Thursday to meet with the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

The Emirates is a close partner of Saudi Arabia’s, and the two nations have been leading a coalition in the war against the Houthis in Yemen, though the Emirates has been withdrawing most of its forces from that campaign in recent months. The yearslong war has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the United States has tried to force Mr. Trump to end American military and arms support for the coalition.

Before departing Abu Dhabi, Mr. Pompeo said that as a result of his meetings in the two Gulf nations, “I think I’ll be able to give the president some important information about how it is we should think about proceeding.”

“I think it’s abundantly clear and there’s an enormous consensus in the region that we know precisely who conducted these attacks,” he added. “It was Iran. I didn’t hear anybody in the region who doubted that for a single moment.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Pompeo and the Saudi prince remained at a working dinner in Jeddah until 11:30 p.m. The State Department said the two “discussed the need for the international community to come together to counter the continued threat of the Iranian regime and agreed that the Iranian regime must be held accountable for its continued aggressive, reckless and threatening behavior.”

Mr. Pompeo told reporters he expected the United States and Saudi Arabia to bring up the Iranian aggression at the United Nations next week when foreign leaders will gather for the annual General Assembly.

Before the attack, top Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, were expected to attend the conclave. There had been speculation about whether Mr. Trump would meet with Mr. Rouhani to discuss the continuing tensions among the United States, Iran, the Gulf nations and Europe, which have been punctuated by violence this past summer — including attacks on international oil tankers for which American officials blamed Iran and the downing of an American drone by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, part of the Iranian military.

A senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday that Iran had sought visas for 124 people to assist its delegation to the United Nations conference and that the State Department had denied around 40 for people with connections to the Revolutionary Guards, which the administration designated as a terrorist organization in April.

American and Saudi officials will probably find it hard to persuade other nations to take strong action on Iran, whose economy is suffering under severe sanctions imposed by Mr. Trump. Other governments say that Mr. Trump set off the current conflict by withdrawing the United States from a 2015 agreement to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and by reimposing sanctions.

The Trump administration took its harshest actions involving sanctions in May when it ended exceptions it had granted eight governments to buy Iranian oil. That meant China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey — the five governments that used the exceptions — had to comply with oil sanctions. Though China still imports some oil from Iran, the end of the exceptions led to a sharp drop in revenue for Iran.

Iran responded by breaching limits on its nuclear program set by the 2015 agreement, even though American intelligence officials and foreign officials had said Tehran was adhering to the terms of the agreement. Analysts say the violence of the summer in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, along with the Sept. 14 attack in Saudi Arabia, were also direct results of the American actions.

“Iran is fighting back, and now we have a major threat to global oil markets, not to mention Iran’s walk back from nuclear commitments,” said Dalia Dassa Kaye, an Iran expert at the RAND Corporation, a research group based in the United States. “It’s at times like these when the United States needs allies, but Trump’s policies have left us with few good options.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/world/middleeast/iran-us-saudi-arabia-attack.html

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Tehran refusing to provide clarification regarding allegations, made by Netanyahu, of renewed nuclear activity

Tehran is refusing to collaborate with an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into its nuclear stockpiles, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday citing unnamed Western diplomats.

The revelation is expected to further aggravate worries over the fate of the 2015 nuclear agreement, believed by many to be on its last legs since the US unilaterally withdrew last year and began reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran.

The diplomats were cited as saying Iran appeared to ignore requests for clarifications regarding allegations, first made by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the Islamic Republic had rebuilt a dismantled site in Tehran to resume its nuclear activity, using materials developed in the past.

Also Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov joined visiting Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in welcoming European efforts to save the nuclear accord while criticizing Washington’s stance.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei also suggested President Hassan Rouhani could meet US counterpart Donald Trump if it served Iran’s interests while cautioning there was no need to meet an “agitator” in the current circumstances.

“In the past few weeks, there have been serious negotiations” between Rouhani and Macron, as well as talks with other European nations, said Rabiei.

Source: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/1567470766-iran-refuses-to-collaborate-with-iaea-inspectors-report

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Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif cautions the United States against attempting to form a naval coalition against Iran under the guise of ensuring maritime security in the Persian Gulf.

Zarif made the remarks to NBC News’ Lester Holt on August 17 in an interview in Tehran, whose complete footage was published by the network on Tuesday.

“If countries from outside this region want to come to this region to disturb our security, to create military alliances against Iran, to create coalitions expecting Iran not to benefit from the fact that it is the coastal state here, then they are making a very serious miscalculation,” he said.

The United States has announced plans to form the coalition to supposedly protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz following a series of mysterious attacks on oil tankers in the strait and the Sea of Oman.

Washington has accused Iran of having a hand in those attacks, a claim Tehran has strongly rejected. Tehran has warned that such sabotage operations may be part of a general ploy to target Iran amid increasing regional tensions.

The US has asked its allies to join the coalition, a call which has not been warmly received over fears that such a mission could lead to tensions with Iran.

Rouhani scoffs t prospect of Israel role in the Persian Gulf – Iran’s president says Israel is incapable of securing even the areas it has occupied, not to mention the Persian Gulf.

Asked “What is Iran’s breaking point?” under the US’s ongoing pressure, Zarif asserted, “Iran will never break.” He cited the country’s record in defeating several aggressors, noting, “We have taught good lessons to those who have invaded us.”

The top diplomat said Iran has been part of the region for 7,000 years, adding, “It is the United States that is uninvited” here.

“I do not think that the United States or any other foreign military presence in this region has ever brought security for anybody,” he stated.

“It is a tiny body of water, which is extremely overcrowded, and the last time that we had such a crowd of naval vessels in this region, we had the downing of a civilian airliner,” Zarif said in reference to a 1988 incident when a US missile cruiser shot a Dubai-headed Iranian passenger plane killing all the 290 people on board, including 66 children.

Zarif also blamed the emergence of the Takfiri Daesh terror group on Washington’s interventionist actions in the region.

The foreign minister also expressed alarm that some were actively trying to trap US President Donald Trump into a situation, where he “would not have any option” other than escalation.

Real source of ‘malign activity’

It is the US and its allied states, which have been the source of the region’s troubles, Zarif said, commenting on Washington’s accusation that Tehran backs regional “malign activity.”

“If you look at our region…who’s the source of instability? Who has supported terrorism? Who supported [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein, when he invaded Iran? Who supported the Taliban, when they took over in Afghanistan in the 1990s?” he asked.

“Who imprisoned the prime minister of another country, [that is] Lebanon?” Zarif said, referring to Saudi Arabia’s detention of Sa’ad Hariri in 2017.

“Who is bombing Yemen? Who are fighting between themselves in southern Yemen, in Aden? Who is fighting in Libya? Who is fighting in Sudan? Who supported ISIS (Daesh) in Syria?” Zarif asked, still referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and their regional proxies.

“The answer to all these questions would not be Iran. The answer would be US allies,” he stated.

The Iranian foreign minister further said, “Today, you would have malign actors like Daesh ruling over a lot of territories” had it not been for Tehran’s support for groups like Hezbollah— which have been fighting Takfiri terrorism across the region but are accused by Washington of “malign” activity.

Tanker drama

Zarif also rejected any “linkage” between Iran’s detention of a UK-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in late July, and Britain’s seizure of an Iranian-operated supertanker in Gibraltar earlier last month.

British forces captured the now-freed vessel on July 4, with London alleging that it was carrying crude to Syria in violation of the European Union’s unilateral sanctions on the Arab country. This is while the British vessel was seized by Iranian forces after it collided with an Iranian fishing boat and ignored its recurrent distress calls.

Zarif repeated Iran’s assertion that the Iranian-run ship was not destined for Syria.

However, he said, “We don’t recognize any restrictions, and we will continue to do our trade with anybody we like.”

Source: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/08/21/604094/Iran-warning-United-States-Persian-Gulf-alliance

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif talks to the media in Caracas, Venezuela July 20, 2019. \ Manaure Quintero/ REUTERS

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Iran will take another step to reduce its compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday without elaborating, according to parliamentary news agency ICANA.

Iran has repeatedly said it will reduce its commitment to the nuclear accord in stages and may even withdraw from the pact altogether unless the remaining signatories find ways to shield its economy from U.S. sanctions. Washington pulled out of the deal last year.

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“The third step in reducing commitments to (the nuclear deal) will be implemented in the current situation,” he said.

“We have said that if (the deal) is not completely implemented by others then we will also implement it in the same incomplete manner. And of course, all of our actions have been within the framework of (the deal).”

Last month, Iran threatened to restart deactivated centrifuges and ramp up enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity in a move away from the nuclear deal.

Iranian officials have said that all of Tehran’s moves in reducing its commitments to the nuclear deal are reversible as long as the remaining signatories uphold their commitments.

Fears of a Middle East war with global repercussions have risen since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew last year from the 2015 deal and revived a panoply of sanctions meant to push Tehran into wider security concessions.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Zarif himself, blocking any property or interests he has in the United States, although Zarif said he had none.

He added at a charity event on Friday night that he is proud to be sanctioned by America for defending the rights of Iranian people, the IRIB news agency reported.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/iran-to-further-reduce-commitments-to-nuclear-deal-foreign-minister-says-1.7617025

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And while we wait for the White House to threaten Europe with even greater tariffs unless it ends this special purpose vehicle – it already did once back in May when it warned that anyone associated with the SPV could be barred from the U.S. financial system if it goes into effect – a response from the US is now assured, because in the biggest attack on the dollar as a reserve currency to date, on Thursday, Russia signaled its willingness to join the controversial payments channel, and has called on Brussels to expand the new mechanism to cover oil exports, the FT reported.

Moscow’s involvement in the Instex channel would mark a significant step forward in attempts by the EU and Russia to rescue a 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has been unraveling since the Trump administration abandoned it last year.

“Russia is interested in close co-ordination with the European Union on Instex,” the Russian foreign ministry told the Financial Times. “The more countries and continents involved, the more effective will the mechanism be as a whole.”

… and the more isolated the US will be as a currency union meant to evade SWIFT and bypass the dollar’s reserve currency status will soon include virtually all relevant and important countries. Only China would be left outstanding; after the rest of the world’s would promptly join.

On Thursday, the Kremlin confirmed the foreign ministry’s take:

“We are tracking the information regarding this. If I’m not mistaken, there have already been statements from our side that, taking into account the first experience of using this system, when it is activated, we cannot rule out interaction in this regard,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters.

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Iran accused the United States of waging economic war by reimposing and extending sanctions. Nevertheless, it reassured Germany’s Heiko Maas that it still wants to work with European powers to salvage a deal to curb its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions, which Washington abandoned a year ago.

European countries have found themselves caught in the middle as the United States and Iran have taken increasingly aggressive postures in recent weeks.

Washington sharply tightened sanctions from the start of May, ordering all countries and companies to halt all imports of Iranian oil or be banished from the global financial system.

It has since also began discussing military confrontation, dispatching extra troops to the region to counter what it describes as Iranian threats.

Iran, for its part, has threatened to increase its enrichment of uranium in response, unless European powers find a way to shield it from the impact of American sanctions.

“The situation in the region here is highly explosive and extremely serious,” Maas told a news conference alongside Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. “A dangerous escalation of existing tensions can also lead to a military escalation.”

The U.N. nuclear watchdog says Iran is still abiding by the nuclear deal despite the U.S. withdrawal. But experts say that if it carries out its threat to increase its output of enriched uranium, it could eventually violate it.

“We had frank and serious talks with Maas,” said Zarif, one of the nuclear deal’s architects. “Tehran will cooperate with EU signatories of the deal to save it,” he said of the deal.

Zarif blamed the United States for the escalation.

“Reducing tension is only possible through stopping the economic war by America,” he said. “Those who wage such wars cannot expect to remain safe.”

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC GESTURES FAIL SO FAR

Washington’s European allies opposed its decision last year to abandon the nuclear deal. They have promised to help Iran find other ways to trade, though with no success so far. All major European companies that had announced plans to invest in Iran have since called them off for fear of U.S. punishment.

The administration of President Donald Trump argues that the deal, reached under his predecessor Barack Obama, is not tough enough and Tehran can be forced to make more concessions with new sanctions. Europeans say this undermines the pragmatist faction in Iran’s leadership and strengthens hardliners.

Iran says the Europeans have not done enough to provide it with alternative ways to engage economically with the outside world. Maas acknowledged limits to how much help the European countries can provide.

“We want to fulfill our obligations,” Maas said during his joint news conference with Zarif. “We cannot work miracles, but we will try to avert a failure” of the nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said: “So far, we have not seen practical and tangible steps from the Europeans to guarantee Iran’s interests.”

In an effort to protect at least some of Iran’s economy from U.S. sanctions, France, Britain and Germany have set up a special-purpose vehicle called Instex, designed to allow trade payments that would bypass sanctions. It has yet to be launched.

“This is an instrument of a new kind, so it’s not straightforward to operationalise it,” Maas told reporters. “But all the formal requirements are in place now, and so I’m assuming we’ll be ready to use it in the foreseeable future.”

Washington has denounced the European plans. Diplomats say the system is unlikely to have much impact on commercial trade with Iran but could be used for humanitarian transactions that are permitted under U.S. sanctions.

Washington says the nuclear deal should be expanded to cover other issues including Iran’s missile program and its regional policies. European countries share those concerns, although they argue that it would be harder to address them without the nuclear deal in place.

Iran strongly opposes any effort to expand negotiations to cover other issues. Mousavi said as much: “The EU is not in a position to question Iran’s issues beyond the nuclear deal.”

Source: https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/germany-iran-united-states/2019/06/10/id/919754/

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