Iran's Foreign Minister: Signing the nuclear deal was probably a mistake
(Baonghean.vn) - On August 20, RT news agency reported that Iran's foreign minister said that joining the historic 2015 international nuclear deal was probably a mistake from the start. The deal is now being damaged by what the diplomat called Washington's "sanctions addiction."
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| Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Photo: Reuters |
Speaking to CNN, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif asserted that the US has a “disease” of being addicted to sanctions. Some US economic sanctions, which were suspended under the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program, are now back in effect after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal. But even before that, according to Zarif, Washington’s hand was “itching” to inflict economic penalties on Tehran.
“Even during the Obama administration, the US put more emphasis on maintaining the sanctions that they had not lifted rather than implementing their obligations on the sanctions that were lifted,” Zarif told CNN.
The diplomat then mused that supporting the deal may have been a mistake on Iran's part from the start, due to a fervent belief that the US was well aware of the impact of sanctions on Iran.
“That was probably one of the mistakes,” Zarif said. “But the point is that we felt that the United States understood that for Iran, sanctions do cause economic hardship, but they don’t have the political consequences that they want to create. I think the Americans have learned that lesson. Unfortunately, I was wrong.”
Iran’s foreign minister was interviewed on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the 1953 US-backed coup in Iran. Just days before the anniversary, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of the Iran Action Group to counter the “malign behavior” of the Iranian government, which many saw as a move to repeat the regime change of more than six decades ago.
“Never again,” Mr. Zarif wrote on Twitter, attaching documentary photos of the chaotic scene on the streets at the time, which was allegedly instigated by the CIA.
