Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif “Iran doesn’t respond well to threats”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has used a series of interviews with US TV outlets to warn the Trump Administration not to step up sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
As part of a diplomatic offensive at the Munich Security Conference, Zarif has portrayed Iran defending itself against the unjust pressure of Washington and its allies. He said to American channels, including NBC News:
Iran doesn’t respond well to threats. We don’t respond well to coercion. We don’t respond well to sanctions, but we respond very well to mutual respect. We respond very well to arrangements to reach mutually acceptable scenarios.
Iran is unmoved by threats.
In its first month in office, the Trump Administration has put out a message that “Iran is officially on notice”, although the bearer, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, soon left office over his phone calls with the Russian Ambassador to the US.
The Administration has not pulled out of the July 2015 nuclear deal with the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, China, Russia, France, and Germany), but the Treasury has imposed sanctions on more Iranian individuals and companies because of links to ballistic missile tests and to the Qods Forces of the Revolutionary Guards. Donald Trump may also not renew the waiver on Congressionally-mandated sanctions, allowing them to take effect and hindering the attempts of European companies to renew business with Tehran.
“Everybody tested us for many years — all threats and coercions were imposed on us,” Zarif said. He mocked “the concept of crippling sanctions,” which he said did not stop Iran acquiring thousands more centrifuges, used for enriching uranium, before talks with the 5+1 Powers.
The US has maintained that Iran’s ballistic missile tests, renewed in March 2016, violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Passed at the time of the nuclear deal, the resolution asks that Tehran not carry out any launches which could support development of nuclear weapons.
The Islamic Republic maintains that the tests are not a violation, as the missiles — with ranges up to 2,000 km (1,240 miles) — are not capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Zarif said to NBC:
We have to provide for our own defense. We are not privy to the type of weapons that on offer to others in our region….Iran has to develop our own means of defense.
