Page 62 - BNE_magazine_bne_September 2019

62 I Eurasia bne September 2019
Is Trump throwing the toys from the pram in his fight with Iran?
IRAN SHOWDOWN:
Tehran mocks “childish” US
as Washington slaps sanctions
on Iranian foreign minister
bne IntelliNews
Iran has accused the US of “childish” and “infantile” behaviour after Washington went ahead with the imposition of sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister and veteran diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Separately, in another development
in the worsening standoff between
Iran and the US, a report suggested
the Iranians may be successfully using clandestine exports to get around the most aggressive part of the Trump administration’s strategy of strangling the Iranian economy to force Middle East concessions, namely the now three- month-old attempt to force all Iranian crude oil exports off world markets.
The sanctions against Zarif block any property or interests that he has in the US. However, he says he has none.
www.bne.eu
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the US on August 1 of “resorting to childish behavior” and of acting out of fear.
“They were claiming every day ‘We want to talk, with no preconditions’ ...and then they sanction the foreign minister,” Rouhani said in remarks broadcast live on Iranian state television.
“A country which believes it’s powerful and a world superpower is afraid of our foreign minister’s interviews,” Rouhani added, seemingly referring to interviews Zarif gave to US media outlets when he visited New York for a United Nations meeting in July.
“When Dr Zarif gives an interview in New York, ... they [Americans] say Iran’s foreign minister is misleading our public opinion,” Rouhani went on,
adding: “What happened to your claims of liberty, freedom of expression and democracy? The pillars of the White House are made to tremble by the words and the logic of a knowledgeable and self-sacrificing man and diplomat.”
Zarif has a long association with the US. He lived there from the age of 17 as a student of international relations in San Francisco and Denver, and subsequently as a UN diplomat in New York. He was Iran’s ambassador to the UN from 2002 to 2007.
For his part, Zarif wrote on Twitter: “The US' reason for designating me is that I am Iran's "primary spokesperson around the world" Is the truth really that painful?
It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran. Thank you for considering me such a huge threat to your agenda.”