Zarif: Stand up to Washington’s ‘bullying’

Zarif: Stand up to Washington’s ‘bullying’

By | 2018-06-07T09:08:07-04:00 June 7th, 2018|News|0 Comments

Mohammad Javad Zarif -Reuters

Iran’s Foreign Minister writes to counterparts in a bid to save 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday called on the world to stand up to Washington’s “bullying behavior, Reutersreported, citing a letter written by Zarif to his counterparts.

Zarif’s letter comes in a bid to save the 2015 nuclear deal, after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it last month.

While Trump withdrew from the Iran deal and announced he would reimpose sanctions on Iran, the European Union did not follow suit, and said it would remain in the agreement and will do so “as long as Iran continues to implement its nuclear related commitments, as it is doing so far.”

The remaining signatories of the deal – France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China – still see the international accord as the best chance of stopping Tehran developing a nuclear weapon and are trying to salvage it.

In a letter from Zarif to his counterparts last week, he asked “the remaining signatories and other trade partners” to “make up for Iran’s losses” caused by the U.S. exit, if they sought to save the deal.

“The JCPOA (nuclear deal) does not belong to its signatories, so one party can reject it based on domestic policies or political differences with a former ruling administration,” Zarif was quoted as saying in the letter.

The nuclear deal was the result of “meticulous, sensitive and balanced multilateral talks”, Zarif added, noting it could not be renegotiated as the United States has demanded.

He said U.S. “illegal withdrawal” from the deal and its “bullying methods to bring other governments in line” with that decision have discredited the rule of law in international arena.

Iran and the European signatories to the deal recently held talks on how to keep the deal alive despite Washington’s withdrawal.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi last week warned that Iran will leave these negotiations if it feels that they are a waste of time.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made clearseveral weeks ago that his country would only give Europe a “limited opportunity” to preserve the nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested last week that Iran could resume its uranium enrichment in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.