No More Statements, Action Please

FM Zarif to JCPOA Signatories: 

BEIJING — Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif on Friday called for "concrete action” to safeguard the 2015 nuclear deal as he warned of a "dangerous” situation amid rising tensions with the U.S.

Tensions have ratcheted up with the U.S. deploying an aircraft carrier group and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf last week.

On a visit to Beijing, Zarif said he would talk with Chinese officials about "bilateral ties and the very dangerous issues that are ongoing in our region today,” according to a video published on the Iranian foreign ministry website.

Amid escalating tensions in the region, Zarif has called on the international community to save the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
"So far the international community has mostly released statements rather than taking action,” Zarif said.

"If the international community and other JCPOA member countries and our friends in the JCPOA like China and Russia want to keep this achievement, it is required that they make sure the Iranian people enjoy the benefits of the JCPOA with concrete actions,” he added.

Zarif said last week that only Russia and China had supported Iran and helped it keep the nuclear deal going, and accused other parties to the agreement of letting Tehran down.

China was one of the eight global buyers — India, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy and Greece — that was allowed to import Iranian crude oil before the US ended waivers in early May.

Zarif’s China trip came after visits to Turkmenistan, India and Japan in the past week.
Despite Washington’s campaign of "maximum pressure” against Iran, the Islamic Republic has vowed to keep selling oil to its main customers, especially China, even if it requires using indirect means.

On May 8, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would stop observing restrictions on stocks of enriched uranium and heavy water agreed under the nuclear deal in retaliation for the U.S. withdrawal and the reimposition of sanctions.

In his announcement, Rouhani threatened to go further if the European members of the deal failed to start delivering on their promises to help Iran circumvent U.S. sanctions within 60 days.

In Tokyo, the Iranian foreign minister said Thursday he is not interested in negotiating with the United States.

"No, there is no possibility for negotiations," Zarif answered when asked in an interview with Kyodo News and other Japanese news outlets in Tokyo whether he would be open to holding bilateral talks aimed at easing tensions.

Writing on Twitter, President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed as "fake news” reports he is frustrated with his top aides on Iran, including National Security Advisor John Bolton, for carrying forward warlike plans. "I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon,” he said.

Zarif, who earlier in the day met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Kono, called the United States a "bully" for pressuring other countries including Japan to adhere to its economic sanctions including a ban on buying Iranian oil.

"This is the first time in history that a bully is telling everybody else, important countries, that 'I'm going to punish you if you observe something that I do not like,'" said Zarif.
Countries including China, India and Japan were initially granted sanctions waivers but the U.S. terminated them earlier this month.

"Let us assume that a bully is standing in a cross section on the street and telling everybody, 'If you don't pass the red light, I'm going to beat you.' This is exactly what the U.S. is telling them," Zarif said, adding, "This is economic terrorism, pure and simple."

Zarif also criticized the European parties to the nuclear deal and Japan for going along with the U.S. sanctions despite publically supporting the nuclear deal.

"I have to stress that it is important for all other members of the JCPOA to take serious account of their continued failure because Europe unfortunately, while supporting JCPOA verbally, has not been able to take any action. Unfortunately, our Japanese partners also have not taken action to implement JCPOA," he said. 

Muslims urge fight on Islamaphobia, slam West after carnage

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says certain countries in the West must be held accountable for an attack on two mosques in New Zealand, which left at least 50 worshipers dead.

"The terrorist attack in New Zealand represents a very dangerous tide in the West that is Islamaphobia," he said in Istanbul where the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held an emergency meeting Friday. 

Certain Western officials and institutions, he said, are aiding and abetting crimes against Muslims with their silence.

Zarif criticized "those who prevent citizens of Muslim countries from entering their countries," referring to US President Donald Trump and "those who prevent the use of Islamic symbols in their countries," meaning Europeans.

"Unfortunately those who claim to be promoting freedom of speech are both suppressing the freedom of expression of Muslims and allowing all forms of insult against Muslims in the name of the freedom of expression," he said. 

"And we are seeing the consequences of this in various parts of the West," Zarif added.

The minister said the OIC emergency meeting in Istanbul came on Iran's request during his phone conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last week after the New Zealand massacre. 

"Our Turkish friends, given the sensitivity they have toward the issue, announced holding this ministerial meeting within a couple of hours after our conversation. This was a very good step taken by the Turkish government," Zarif said. 

"At this meeting, we plan to try to establish a consensus not only to condemn this (terrorist attack in New Zealand), but also to take necessary measures for the Islamic countries to prevent the repetition of such events," he said.

"With OIC ministers in Turkey; all condemn barbaric Christchurch terror against Muslims & seek to unite against dangerous tide of racism & Islamophobia in the West," Zarif tweeted later.

In his speech to the OIC meeting, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for a global fight against rising Islamophobia, saying Muslim nations cannot allow "this brutal terror attack to be forgotten."

"Just as humanity fought against anti-Semitism after the Holocaust disaster, it should fight against rising Islamophobia in the same determined fashion," Erdogan said. 

"Right now we are facing Islamophobia and Muslim hatred," he said, adding far-right neo-Nazi groups should be treated as terrorists in the same way as Daesh extremists.

The Turkish president also said the reaction and empathy shown by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern following the attack should be an example to world leaders.

New Zealand’s foreign minister arrived in Turkey early Friday for “substantial” talks after comments made by Erdogan over the killing sparked a diplomatic spat between the nations.

Representatives from the UN, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also participated in the event.

An Important Message!

Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, sends a video

message regarding US sanctions on Iran!

The Iran obsession

UNITED NATIONS

VIJAY PRASHAD

President Donald Trump at the U.N. Security Council briefing on counter-proliferation
in New York on September 26. 

Donald Trump uses the U.S.’ presidency of the United Nations Security Council to launch a heavy-handed attack on Iran and the nuclear deal signed with that country in 2015.

President Donald Trump brought down the gavel at the United Nations Security Council. The United States holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in October. The topic for discussion at its first session was to be non-proliferation. Trump wanted to turn the entire session into an attack on Iran and the 2015 nuclear accord signed with that country. The accord—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—had been ratified by the U.N. and was being overseen by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). There has been no indication of any violation by Iran of the terms of the deal. Appetite for ending the deal is near nil. Only the U.S. and Israel—as well as Saudi Arabia—have made it clear that they would like to nullify the nuclear deal and resume their pressure on Iran.

Trump said that the deal—which has paused the Iranian nuclear programme—was unacceptable. “This horrible, one-sided deal allowed Iran to continue its path towards a bomb and gave the regime a cash lifeline when it needed it the most. They were in big, big trouble,” Trump spluttered. “They needed cash. We gave it to them.” It is true that the Iranian economy had stalled for lack of ability to sell oil to the international market. That vital foreign exchange has been denied to Iran for two decades. It has put a great deal of pressure on a country that is reliant on oil sales and needs that money to tackle endemic problems—including poverty (one in five Iranians lives below the poverty line). Trump promised to throttle Iran with new U.S.-driven sanctions that go into effect in early November.

European diplomats, in the halls of the U.N., would not go on record about Trump’s assault on Iran. They are cautious. Europe has tried every legal measure to protect European firms that want to do business both with Iran and with the U.S. These firms—from Volkswagen to Airbus, from Total to Sanofi—do not want their dealings in Iran to impact the much more lucrative trade that they do with the U.S. Fear of being shut off from the U.S. market and from credit from U.S. banks drives the European agenda. The European Union’s (E.U.) foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, had tried to build a “legal shield” to insulate these firms. Such a shield, she was told by the Trump administration, was simply not available. That was the reason for the tepid response from Europe. Large European firms are too closely integrated into the economy of the U.S. for the E.U. to risk a confrontation with the U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the General Assembly on September 27. He claimed that Israeli intelligence services had discovered
a “secret atomic warehouse” in Tehran.

At the U.N. General Assembly, both Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to revive an anti-Iran mood. Netanyahu came once more with an aerial map that purported to show a secret warehouse for Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. The Iranian delegation laughed openly as Netanyahu spoke. Later, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the site was actually a Persian carpet washing factory. “Israeli intelligence was taken for a ride,” Zarif said after the session. Aragchi concurred. “Someone set him up,” he said. Even three U.S. officials later admitted that the site pointed at by Netanyahu was not a nuclear facility. Despite this, the U.S. has asked the IAEA to investigate the site. Zarif said in a meeting with reporters: “The IAEA will not allow itself to be the arm of the boy who cried wolf.”

Plucky Bolivia

Bolivian President Evo Morales speaks during a briefing on counter-proliferation at
the U.N. Morales and his U.N. envoy said Trump’s statements about Iran were
“unwelcome”.

Inside the Security Council, it was left to the plucky Bolivia to challenge Trump’s claims about Iran. Both Bolivia’s President Evo Morales and his U.N. envoy Sacha Llorenty Soliz sharply noted that Trump’s statements on Iran were “unwelcome”. Morales pointed to the history of “unilateral action, political interventionism and regime change” by the U.S.—manoeuvres that are already afoot against Iran. Later, Llorenty said that the U.S. move in the Security Council had been “clumsy”, wrong-footed. Little was gained by the heavy-handed attack on Iran, which is not seen amongst most of the member-states of the U.N. as a threat to world peace.

The ugliest statements about Iran came from Trump’s close adviser, John Bolton. He warned Iran that it would have “hell to pay” if it harmed U.S. citizens or allies. There is a far-fetched tone to these comments. Threats from Iran are mute. Domestic economic challenges have galvanised the Iranian government, which worries about the new U.S. sanctions that will go into effect from November 5. The expense of its intervention in Syria and the inability to use payment systems to receive money for its oil exports are two daunting problems. No easy solution is available for either. Iranian officials know that they cannot abandon their ally in Syria, which will require considerable funds to rebuild the devastated country. They know as well that despite European appetite for Iranian oil, the U.S. will not permit European countries to easily pay Iran. Europeans are eager to create a new payment system—one that is immune from U.S. pressure. Iranian government officials hope that such a system can come into effect as soon as possible. They are not cavalier. They know that the new sanctions from November will have a strong negative impact on Iran.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi defended the Iran nuclear deal. It, he said, “is a consensus-based multilateral agreement endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. It serves the common interest of all parties concerned and the international community at large.” Ma Zhaoxu, China’s envoy to the U.N., was as clear that there should be no unilateral disposal of the nuclear deal. It had created stability in West Asia—a major goal for the Chinese government, which buys over 700,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day and which has considerable investment across Iran. That Trump is in the midst of a trade war against China put the steel in the Chinese comments. There was little space for compromise here. China made it clear that it would not honour Trump’s new sanctions and that it would continue to trade with Iran.

Fears of a U.S. war on Iran are not unfounded. Diplomats do not like to talk about war. Their mode of speech is muffled. Yet, on Iran, veteran diplomats said that the atmosphere resembled in many ways that of the lead-up to the U.S. war on Iraq. There is one major difference, however. The U.S. now faces an open challenge from many other powers, especially China, which will play its part to prevent a war on Iran. One diplomat from a South American country joked that he would like to see Chinese military aircraft enter Tehran as a shield against an Israeli or U.S. attack on the country. “It would be like the Russian entry into Syria,” the diplomat said.

Trump and Netanyahu, and certainly Bolton, have not come to terms with this elementary fact, namely that China and Russia are now not merely going to make quiet noises in the U.N. They are capable of challenging the U.S. and its allies where it matters, on the ground. A U.S. bombing run against Iran would certainly widen the war that is now slowly ending in Syria. This is precisely what Russia does not want. Nor does China. Chinese officials were pleased to switch the topic of conversation to the new train that runs from China to Iran. They would like to see the Belt and Road Initiative expand along the southern edge of Asia. It is a far better outcome for them than another war in western Asia, another set of unpredictable and dangerous consequences that would come out of Trump’s obsession with Iran.

Courtesy- Frontline 

Will Pakistan Cooperate With Iran in Cleansing Baluchistan of Terrorist Dens?

By: Kayhan Int’l 

    A flurry of diplomatic activities is underway between Tehran and Islamabad for the quick release of the Iranian border guards kidnapped by US-Saudi-backed terrorists near Mirjaveh in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan and taken to a hideout across the border in Pakistan.

     On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Pakistani counterpart Maqdoum Shah Mahmoud Hussain Qureshi were on the hotline, after the readiness announced by the Islamic Revolution Guards’ Corps for a joint military operation with the Pakistani armed forces against the terrorists. 

     Following the change of guard in Islamabad and the election of Imran Khan as prime minister, this is the first major incident of cross-border terrorism against the Islamic Republic of Iran by terrorists based in Pakistan’s Baluchistan and financed by the unholy Riyadh-Washington-Tel Aviv trinity.

     The latest incident of terrorism against Iran from across its eastern borders seems to be a clumsy bid by Saudi Arabia, or more properly its de facto ruler, Heir Apparent Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) to distract attention from his gruesome murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey, which is threatening to cause a dangerous diplomatic rift between Riyadh and Ankara, while the US is trying to use all its Machiavellian skills to put the blame on supposedly roguish consular elements, who are likely to executed, in order to give a clear chit to MBS – for more grotesque crimes elsewhere.

      As is evident from the timing of the kidnapping, the nefarious plan of the terrorists and their masters is to force Iran into taking a rash and unilateral cross border military action that would strain the improving trend of Tehran-Islamabad ties.

      Though the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran possess the necessary will, the means, and the expertise for the necessary rescue operation to free the 14 Iranian hostages, they are looking forward to the goodwill of their Pakistani counterparts, especially in view of the frequent exchange over the past year of the two countries’ diplomatic, cultural, trade, security, military and intelligence delegations, for safeguarding regional stability.

      Pakistan also understands that the terrorists and their backers intend to test the resolve of the new government to tackle the sensitive issue, following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to oil-rich Saudi Arabia which depends on a large Pakistani workforce – his first foreign trip after taking over the government – and his meetings with senile King Salman and the imp MBS.

     Pakistani which wisely did not take sides in MBS’ disastrous war in Yemen, has now become fully aware that the Rogue in Riyadh may not survive long in power, especially after his killing of Khashoggi, and even if he does, he is likely to cause embarrassment to Islamabad through his blatant backing of anti-Iranian terrorists, since the view from oil-rich Saudi Arabia of poor Pakistan is that of an ‘Arbab’ who doles out dollars to an insubordinate for dictating policies he likes – including the continued delay in implementing the natural gas pipeline project.

     It is time Islamabad summoned the courage to shun this image of uneven relations, since all factors indicate that Saudi Arabia, which is not a nation born out of people’s will (like Pakistan), nor a geographical region, and neither a culturally cohesive society, but a spurious British creation, may not survive for long. 

     Iran and Pakistan share the longest friendly border (959 km) in the whole region with no dispute whatsoever, and therefore to avoid these unsavoury incidents by foreign-backed terrorists the government and security forces of the two countries should coordinate views and measures for weeding out all vestiges of terrorism from Baluchistan.

     A piece of advice for the terrorists. Don’t doubt the determination of Islamic Iran. When your accomplices-in-crimes committed recently in Ahvaz couldn’t escape the vengeance of our counter-terrorism units, whether in Deir ez-Zore, Syria or whether in Iraq’s Diyala, you are merely living on borrowed time and cannot escape their fate. 

Iran, Sri Lanka Discuss Promotion of Energy Ties

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Sri Lankan counterpart have conferred on expansion of bilateral ties between the two countries in various fields, especially in energy.

During the Wednesday meeting in Colombo, the two sides discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation and explore further areas of mutual relations.

Oil, energy, petrochemicals, construction, banking, and agriculture were among the topics discussed by the two foreign ministers. Closer cooperation on global issues, especially in international organisations and bodies, was another key focus of the talks.

The two sides also discussed the most important regional and international issues during a luncheon held later in the day.

Zarif also met with Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, to talk about the latest developments in bilateral relations, regional and international issues.

The Iranian foreign minister left Tehran for Sri Lanka’s capital of Colombo on Tuesday.

After Sri Lanka, Zarif will visit Singapore to sign documents on Iran’s accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.