Iran FM Zarif: We are facing US economic terrorism

Monitoring Desk

TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran is facing US economic terrorism which is based on the illusions promoted by a group inside the US that has always lied to the government.

Talking to reporters at the end of cabinet’s Wednesday morning session, Zarif referred to the 11th Majlis elections in Iran to be held this Friday and said:

We are facing economic terrorism, this economic terrorism is based on the elusive notions by a group in the US that has always lied to its government. He said that since the sanctions had been imposed, this group has told the US government that the sanctions would overthrow the Iranian government in just two or three months.

Zarif added: Still, an ignorant person like Pompeo tells Trump that the Iranian government will be overthrown within months, we know he is wrong and that the Iranian people favor their government though, now, each of us may have concerns about the election.

The top diplomat continued: “We all had another preference, maybe we thought that if more people were approved, more people would be likely to participate in the elections.

But today is not the time for such discussions. Today is the time to tell the US that your maximum pressure policy has failed.”

Zarif went on to comment on the effect of the bigger public participation in Iran’s foreign policy and said: If we want to strengthen our foreign policy so that they could work with more vigorously to foil sanctions, then we have to force bring the US to the negotiation table; not for bilateral talks but the negotiations which America abandoned, namely the one with 5+1.

He further stressed that at the present juncture the best way to defend the country is to participate in the upcoming elections.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped anyone who meets with Zarif would be reflecting the US position with Iran.

“This guy [Zarif] is designated by the United States of America,” Pompeo said at a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “He’s the foreign minister for a country that shot down a commercial airliner and has yet to turn over the black boxes. This is the foreign minister of a country that killed an American on December 27.”

“And it’s the foreign minister of a country who is the largest world sponsor of terror and the world’s largest sponsor of anti-Semitism.”

Pompeo referred to the US treasury decision in July 2019 to designate Zarif for acting for the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. In April 2019, US President Donald Trump designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and its Quds Force, as a foreign terrorist organization.

In January, Iran’s aviation authority said it would not hand over flight recorders from the Ukrainian passenger plane that killed all 176 people on board.

At the tailend of December, an American civilian contractor was killed and several were wounded in an Iranian rocket attack on an Iraqi military base where the contractors were housed.

“If they met, I don’t know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing America’s foreign policy and not their own,” Pompeo said.

Murphy said meeting Zarif was important because it is “dangerous not to talk to one’s enemies,” adding: “I have no delusions about Iran – they are our adversary.”

On Tuesday, Murphy’s office confirmed to Al Arabiya English that he had met with Zarif at the Munich conference. (IRNA)