FM Zarif:

U.S. Should Know Consequences of Curbing Iran Oil

Date: 08 August 2018 - 21:54

News ID: ۵۶۱۰۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- A U.S. plan to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero will not succeed, Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif was cited as saying by an Iranian newspaper on Wednesday.
U.S. officials have said in recent weeks that they aim to pressure countries to stop buying oil from Iran in a bid to force Tehran to halt its nuclear and missile programs and involvement in fighting Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
"If the Americans want to keep this simplistic and impossible idea in their minds they should also know its consequences,” Zarif told the Iran newspaper.
"They can’t think that Iran won’t export oil and others will export.”
President Hassan Rouhani hinted last month that Iran could block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, if the U.S. attempted to stop the Islamic Republic’s oil exports.
Last month, Trump offered to meet with Iran’s senior officials. Zarif said that Oman and Switzerland have acted as mediators in talks with America in the past but that there are currently no direct or indirect talks being held with the United States.
He said it was hard to imagine new talks with the U.S. after it lost the trust of the world with its erratic decision-making.
"Imagine negotiating now -- how can we trust them?” Zarif told reporters on state broadcaster IRINN. "America has zig-zagged constantly, so now no one trusts them.”
The minister said Iran is now in a much better position than the last time when it was under Western sanctions which were lifted in early 2016 under the nuclear deal.
"There is a big difference this time,” said Zarif. "Before nobody supported Iran. But now, all the countries in the world are supporting Iran.”
On Tuesday, the Iranian foreign minister said the world is "sick & tired” of Washington’s unilateralism in response to a tweet by Trump warning other countries against doing business with Tehran.
"Tantrums & CAPPED TWEETS won’t change the fact that the world is sick & tired of US unilateralism. Stopping U.S. trade and killing 100K U.S. jobs is fine with us, but the world won’t follow impulsive tweeted diktats. Just ask EU, Russia, China & dozens of our other trading partners,” tweeted Zarif.
Trump tweeted on Tuesday that "anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States,” claiming that he was "asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!”
"The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level,” the U.S. president wrote.
"Reminder: International relations is not a beauty pageant, with tired clichés about a desire for WORLD PEACE. And it is not the first time that a warmonger claims he is waging war for "world peace,” Zarif responded.