Zarif: US targeted Iran with terrorism, B-Team escalation

Mohammad Javad Zarif

Tehran, July 23, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that US foreign policy has been designed by B-Team escalating tension and targeting Iran with terrorism putting at risk livelihood of Iranian families in total disregard of the United Nations Charter.

“The US has targeted Iran with terrorism in the name of sanctions. Sanctions have their own procedure to impose on a state. It should follow the legal procedure and is adopted by the law, but the US unilateral sanctions on Iran are economic terrorism,” he said in Caracas, Venezuela in a speech to specialized meeting on promotion of the United Nations Charter and International Law.

Zarif said, “Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political agenda. This is Google’s definition of terrorism.”

He added that the US Administration makes every effort to give its unilateral sanctions a legal definition, but, the US sanctions are the true face of terrorism targeting the heath and security of Iranian civilians.

Saying that the US terrorism is threat to the world, Zarif tweeted, "I’m in Venezuela to attend NAM meeting geared to forge global response to unilateralism. In Iran’s engagement with the world, we neither call for the ouster of leaders, nor “bolster” them—decisions that are for the PEOPLE of a nation.”

"UK must cease being an accessory to Economic Terrorism of the US," Zarif stressed.

A month ago, in reaction to US' accusing of Iran of attacking oil tankers Zarif said that he knows B-Team's nature, and tweeted a couple days ago: "Make no mistake: Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his #B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire. Only prudence and foresight can thwart such ploys."

The Guardian wrote on Sunday, "Trump’s arch-hawk lured Britain into a dangerous trap."

Though Bolton's drawing the UK into such as trap was not hard because the UK had already volunteered for that by seizing the tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Strait of Gibraltar, it seems that London is not willing to stay in the quagmire any longer. The Telegraph wrote on Sunday that the UK has wanted the US to avoid giving provocative comments about Iran's seizing the UK oil tanker that had violated the international law.

That’s not all the story; Bolton's deception has not just targeted the UK, Trump has also been trapped. A video of Trump was published in which he says he was sitting behind the desk in the oval office and asks Bolton to confirm the Iranian drone that they claimed was shot down, which was later proven a lie  by Iran's publishing the video of the US warship.

The most important member of the B Team is Bolton, whose animosity toward Iran is the longest of all the members of the team. However, the other members of the ominous team spare no attempts to raise the tension in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Europe's attempts to guard the Iran deal is like the failed diplomacy about the Nazis.

The other member of the B Team is Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman who is mysteriously silent, despite the region's tensions. The reason of his silence can be the Saudis' unprecedented problems in Yemen. The war on Yemen that was supposed to bring about a fat victory has changed into a war of attrition.

The last member of the team, Mohammed bin Zayed, the United Arab Emirates crown prince, who has taken up the silence policy, as well, is showing signs of discontent with the team and inclination to leave it.

Though the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Zarif's presence in New York and his interviews were bad, analysts say his interviews were effective.

Zarif told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that the US had an election, not a revolution. Earlier, some US media had said that Trump's decision to withdraw from the JCPOA was just because he wanted to annihilate all Obama's achievements