Diplomat:

US Economic War on Iran Targeting Regional Security

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi highlighted the negative impacts of the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic and said Washington’s economic war against Tehran has targeted the security of the entire region.

News ID: 77777

Date: 16 June 2019 - 12:15

“The economic war that the US has waged against the Iranian people has targeted the security and stability of the entire region and caused tension in the region,” Araqchi said at a meeting with Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly Marielle de Sarnez in Tehran on Saturday evening.

The Iranian diplomat further described the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as “the only successful experience of diplomacy in the resolution of problems through dialogue in the chaotic West Asia region.”

“The US has endangered diplomacy and multilateralism by exiting the deal and exposed the experience to failure,” he added.

The French lawmaker, for her part, hailed the JCPOA as a diplomatic achievement and stressed the need for further efforts to save the international accord.

The remarks came against the backdrop of increased tensions between Iran and the US with Washington imposing new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from the JCPOA.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump is trying to reduce Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” and has sent an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber squad, an amphibious assault ship, and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to try to stack up pressure on Tehran.

Iranian officials, however, have dismissed such moves as psychological warfare, saying the country has its own ways of circumventing the American bans and selling crude oil.

On the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran announced that it would suspend the implementation of some of its commitments under the deal, announcing that it would stop exporting excess uranium and heavy water, setting a 60-day deadline for the five remaining parties to the deal to take practical measures towards ensuring its interests in the face of the American sanctions.

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