TEHRAN : Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was hit with USsanctions after turning down an invitation to meet President Donald Trump,officials in the Islamic republic said on Sunday.
The New Yorker magazine reported on Friday that Senator Rand Paul met Zarifin the US on July 15 and had Trump’s blessing when he extended aninvitation to the Iranian minister to go to the White House.
Officials in Iran confirmed the report on Sunday, heaping scorn on theTrump administration for claiming to want dialogue with Iran while slappingsanctions on its top diplomat.
“For a government to constantly claim (to favour) negotiations andafterwards sanction the foreign minister… if this is not ridiculous, thenwhat is it?” said foreign ministry spokesman Ali Rabiei.
“In a meeting with a senator, he (Zarif) is invited to come to a meetingand then he is sanctioned,” Rabiei said in remarks aired on statetelevision.
“We believe that these sanctions show that the politicians of the WhiteHouse have to some extent made a personal issue of affairs,” he said,describing such behaviour as “childish”.
On Wednesday the United States imposed sanctions against Zarif, effectivelyslamming the door on Iran’s top diplomat.
Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National SecurityCouncil, said the invitation and sanctions amounted to a failure of USdiplomacy.
“Imposing sanctions on the honourable foreign minister of Iran after therefusal of Trump’s proposal for face-to-face talks with him showed the‘maximum pressure’ train has stopped at the ‘failure station’,” he said ina statement quoted by ISNA news agency.
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Tensions between arch-enemies Iran and the United States have soared thisyear after Washington stepped up its campaign of “maximum pressure” againstthe Islamic republic.
Ships have been attacked, drones downed and oil tankers seized since May,after the United States withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iranand world powers and reimposed biting sanctions against the country.
At the height of the crisis, Trump called off air strikes against Iran atthe last minute in June after the Islamic republic’s forces shot down a USdrone.
According to The New Yorker, Zarif said it was up to Tehran to decide onaccepting a meeting with Trump.
Zarif told the magazine he would not want a White House meeting thatyielded just a photo opportunity and a two page statement afterwards, itreported.
Trump has said publicly several times that he is willing to hold talks withthe Iranians even as he lambasts Tehran as a corrupt, incompetent anddangerous regime that is a threat to regional security and US interests.-APP/AFP
