WASHINGTON, DC: The US has exempted three Iranian nuclear sites from sanctions, but warned that they will be under strict scrutiny, the State Department said.
The benefitted sites were those of Arak (central Iran), Bushehr (south) and Fordow, near the city of Qom that was built underground to protect against military attack.
The measure announced was “interim” and only allowed the continuation of the three non-proliferation projects “under the strictest scrutiny to ensure transparency and maintain constraints on Iran” Efe quoted the State Department as saying.
On Monday, the US imposed its “toughest ever” sanctions on Iran that it had earlier lifted after the signing of the nuclear agreement in July, 2015 between Tehran and Russia, China, the UK, France, Germany and the US.
US President Donald Trump’s administration in May reinstated all sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and countries that trade with it in oil, financial transactions with its Central Bank and the country’s port sector.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to YouTube on Tuesday to dismiss US sanctions and Washington’s demands of change from Tehran as “absurd, unlawful and fundamentally flawed”.
“The US administration appears to believe that imposing draconian sanctions on Iran will bring about such pain to our nation that it will force us to submit to its will,” Zarif said in a video message, posted in English and Persian.
“We have weathered difficult times in the face of 40 years of American hostility relying solely on our own resources, and today we and our partners across the globe will ensure that our people are least affected by this indiscriminate assault,” he said.
Washington’s decision to scrap the multi-nation nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions — with the last tranche hitting — was “pushing it further into global isolation”.
The Persian version said the US “will regret this unwise move” and emphasised that the sanctions were aimed at “separating people from each other and from the establishment”.
The United States would be better off rethinking its “unconditional support” for Israel, which has “blinded the US to their appalling atrocities”, Zarif said.
“President (Donald) Trump’s predecessors also began crafting their Iran policy with similar bravado but came around to accepting and respecting the reality of Iran as they became more experienced in office,” he added.
ERDOGAN HITS OUT AT SANCTIONS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan too on Tuesday hit out at new sanctions on Iran imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump, saying they were aimed at upsetting the global balance and against international law.
Turkey was one of eight countries exempted from the demand to stop buying Iranian oil. “We don’t find the (Iran) sanctions appropriate,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
“Because to us, they are aimed at upsetting the global balance,” he added. “They are against international law and diplomacy. We don’t want to live in an imperial world.”
Erdogan’s comments came after his Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that isolating Iran was “dangerous.”
“While we were asking (for) an exemption from the United States, we have also been very frank with them that cornering Iran is not wise. Isolating Iran is dangerous and punishing the Iranian people is not fair,” he told a press conference during a trip to Japan.
“Turkey is against sanctions, we don’t believe any results can be achieved through the sanctions,” he added. “I think instead of sanctions, meaningful dialogue and engagement is much more useful.” — IANS/AFP
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