Zarif’s office rejected the report, calling it “false allegations serving the low and pathetic political interests of a certain group.”

By World Israel News Staff

Iran’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, issued a sharp denial Tuesday after Israel’s Channel 14 reported that he had secretly held multiple meetings with exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during Iran’s recent protests.

According to the report, Zarif later briefed former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the alleged meetings. It also claimed the contacts triggered a security response, with reports in Iran alleging that both Zarif and Rouhani were detained and placed under house arrest.

In a response also published by Channel 14, Zarif’s office rejected the report outright, calling it “false allegations serving the low and pathetic political interests of a certain group.”

The statement said the claims were manufactured through political coordination and foreign influence, describing them as “an absurd, ridiculous, and completely baseless claim.”

It added that the story was so implausible that “at first we did not even see a need to respond or deny,” but said the details broadcast by Channel 14 prompted the office to issue an official rebuttal.

Zarif’s office also accused internal Iranian factions of aligning with foreign actors, claiming the narrative was being exploited to advance propaganda.

“The Iranian people clearly saw how certain individuals acted over the years as part of the schemes of the Israeli regime,” the statement said, arguing that similar claims have been used repeatedly to mislead the public.

The statement ended with a warning, saying, “This shared language may be a warning light for the end of the immunity enjoyed by those who for years, through lies, plots, and slander, and under the guise of revolutionary zeal, harmed beloved Iran.”

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Iranian vice president denies Tehran had foreknowledge of Hamas’ invasion of Israel, distancing itself from the attacks and suggesting they hurt Iran’s interests.

By World Israel News Staff

A top Iranian official on Wednesday denied that Tehran had foreknowledge of Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7th, 2023, and distanced his government from the attacks, suggesting they had negative repercussions for Iran.

Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif, who formerly served as Foreign Minister, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, discussing the ongoing stalemate of Iran’s nuclear program, its ties to Hamas, and the impact of the October 7th invasion of Israel on Iran.

Zarif reiterated previous claims by Iranian leaders that Tehran was unaware of Hamas’ plans to invade Israel, and even suggested that the attacks were detrimental to Iran’s foreign policy.

“We did not know about October 7,” Zarif said.

“We were supposed to have a meeting with the Americans on JCPOA renewal on October 9, which was undermined and destroyed by this operation.”

“Tehran’s allies in the region, including Hamas, have always worked for their own cause, even at our expense,” Zarif continued.

“We never tried to cash [in on] our investment in the region.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made similar comments days after October 7th, denying any connection with the attacks, while appearing to laud Hamas, a long-time Iranian proxy.

During his address on Wednesday, Zarif  – who was instrumental in crafting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal while serving as foreign minister – denied Tehran has any ambitions for obtaining atomic weapons.

“Had we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it a long time ago. But a program to build nuclear weapons is not going to be like our program.”

Zarif said he hoped the new American president will “choose rationality” during his second term in office and “be more serious, more focused, more realistic.”

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Iranian vice president claims Israel tried to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program by planting bombs in centrifuge but attempt was foiled.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel attempted to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program recently by planting explosives inside centrifuges ordered by Tehran from abroad, a senior Iranian official claimed Tuesday.

A preview of a soon-to-be-released interview given by Iranian Vice President and former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was released by the anti-regime outlet Iran International, including excerpts regarding the alleged Israeli sabotage plot.

Speaking with Iran’s Hozour program, Zarif said that Iranian nuclear officials had ordered centrifuges that were later found to have been embedded with explosive devices apparently planted by Israel.

Zarif did not disclose when the alleged incident occurred, nor did he share details on how the explosive devices were detected or how Iran ascertained Israel was behind the attempted sabotage.

“Our colleagues had purchased a centrifuge platform for the Atomic Energy Organization, and it was discovered that explosives had been embedded inside it, which they managed to detect,” Zarif said.

Zarif ripped international sanctions imposed on Iran, saying the use of intermediaries for such purchases provided more opportunities for sabotage by hostile powers.

“Instead of being able to order equipment directly from the manufacturer, sanctions force you to rely on multiple intermediaries for such purchases,” Zarif said. “If the Zionist regime infiltrates even one of the intermediaries, they can do anything and embed anything they want, which is exactly what happened.”

Zarif compared the alleged attempted sabotage of Iran’s nuclear program with the September 2024 bombing attacks conducted by Israel’s Mossad on Hezbollah terrorists with the use of compact explosive devices planted in pagers and handheld radios.

“The issue with the pagers in Lebanon turned out to be a multi-year process, meticulously orchestrated by the Zionists,” he said

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US embargo on helicopter parts to blame for Iranian president’s death in crash, claims former Foreign Minister.

By World Israel News Staff

The fatal helicopter crash in northwestern Iran which resulted in the deaths of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage – including Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian – was caused by American sanctions on the Islamic republic, a former Iranian foreign minister argued Monday.

Speaking in an interview with state media, Amir-Abdollahian’s predecessor, Mohammad Javad Zarif, claimed that the American sanctions regime on Iran, including an embargo on aircraft parts, was responsible for the helicopter crash Sunday.

“One of the culprits behind yesterday’s tragedy is the United States, because of its sanctions that bar Iran from procuring essential aviation parts,” Zarif said.

“The crime of the United States will definitely be recorded in the minds of the Iranian people and in history.”

On Sunday, the American-made, Vietnam war-era Bell 212 Twin Huey helicopter used to transport Raisi and part of his entourage crashed near Jolfa, close to the border between the nation of Azerbaijan and the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan, 375 miles northwest of Tehran.

The aircraft was exported to Iran during the Shah’s reign, which collapsed during Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In response to the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran and the taking of American hostages, the U.S. imposed an embargo on Iran, preventing the sale of replacement parts and service equipment for American-made vehicles used by Iran.

Raisi and his entourage were making a return trip to Iran after visiting Azerbaijan for a ceremony marking the inauguration of a dam built jointly by the two countries.

The president’s helicopter encountered severe weather conditions, including heavy fog and strong winds, and was forced to make a “hard landing,” Iranian officials said.

Rescue teams dispatched to the crash site found no survivors.

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“John Kerry needs to go. He should resign, or he should get fired by the president of the United States,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on Monday called for the resignation of Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, a member of President Biden’s National Security Council, due to reports that Kerry revealed sensitive information about Israel’s covert activities in Syria to Iranian officials.

Sullivan, speaking on the Senate floor, said, “Today I’ve heard such disturbing news that if true, it should absolutely result in the call of John Kerry either being fired or resigning. Enough is enough.”

According to Sullivan, the disturbing news came by way of “a tape that was leaked of an interview with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif.”

“The most disturbing part of the interview that was leaked was when Zarif said that John Kerry told him, the Iranian foreign minister, about covert Israeli actions against Iranian interests in Syria,” Sullivan said.

Zarif said that, “to his astonishment,” then Secretary of State Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, the New York Times reported Sunday.

“When I read this today, I was astonished as well,” said Sullivan.

“If John Kerry told the leaders of Iran about issues relating to our most critical ally in the region, Israel, who Iran has repeatedly said they want to wipe off the face of the earth, if he did this, he needs to resign,” he said.

Sullivan said that Kerry has a record of working against American national security interests, but the latest news represents “a redline that was crossed” and “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“John Kerry needs to go. He should resign, or he should get fired by the president of the United States,” he said.

According to the New York Times, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh did not dispute the authenticity of the recording but called the leak “unethical politics.”

Kerry denied the allegations. “I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened – either when I was Secretary of State or since,” he tweeted Monday evening.

When asked for Biden’s reaction to the report on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “We’re not going to comment on leaked tapes.”

As secretary of state under the Obama administration, Kerry was America’s lead negotiator of the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal.

After President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA, Kerry admitted to meeting on his own with Zarif in 2018 in an effort to salvage the deal. According to reports, he advised Zarif to hang tough during the Trump years in the hopes that the 2020 elections would lead to a Democratic administration.

Before entering a long career in politics, Kerry served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Upon his return, he accused his fellow soldiers of committing war crimes before Congress. His actions later came back to haunt him during his 2014 run for the presidency as a group, “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” formed against him and successfully attacked him on grounds of character as unfit for the White House.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Biden administration is responsible for the Iranian COVID-19 deaths because it is upholding sanctions and preventing Iran from obtaining food, medicine, and vaccines.

The post WATCH: Biden no better than Trump, responsible for COVID deaths, Iran says appeared first on World Israel News.

“The window of opportunity for the new U.S. administration will not be open forever,” said Iran’s foreign minister.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif laid out Iran’s conditions for America’s reentry into the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in a Foreign Affairs op-ed on Friday.

“U.S. President Joe Biden can choose a better path by ending Trump’s failed policy of ‘maximum pressure’ and returning to the deal his predecessor abandoned,” said Zarif.

“If he does, Iran will likewise return to full implementation of our commitments under the nuclear deal. But if Washington instead insists on extracting concessions, then this opportunity will be lost,” he said.

Zarif said that the Biden administration must begin by unconditionally removing all sanctions imposed, reimposed, or relabeled since Trump took office.

Then and only then would the remaining signatories to the deal “decide whether the United States should be allowed to reclaim the seat at the table that it abandoned in 2018,” Zarif said.

“That return to the table will be jeopardized if Washington or its EU allies demand new terms for a deal that was already carefully constructed through years of negotiations,” he said.

Zarif said the Biden administration has a fundamental choice to make and the window of opportunity will not be open forever.

He said that Biden’s removal of sanctions against Iran and agreement to abide by the unaltered terms of the JCPOA will “open new possibilities for peace and stability in our region.”

Iran’s terms appear to directly counter recent statements by the Biden administration, which has suggested that Iran should be the first to comply and that the terms of the JCPOA may be subject to some degree of renegotiation.

In the administration’s first White House press briefing on Jan. 20, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the U.S. would seek to “lengthen and strengthen nuclear constraints on Iran and address other issues of concern.”

“Iran must resume compliance with significant nuclear constraints under the deal in order for that to proceed,” she said.

Biden’s Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken said at a Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 19, “The president-elect believes that if Iran comes back into compliance, we would too.”

Blinken also said that the U.S. would seek a “longer and stronger agreement.”

In a Sept. 2020 CNN op-ed, Biden said, “If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.”

“With our allies, we will work to strengthen and extend the nuclear deal’s provisions, while also addressing other issues of concern,” he said.

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Here is a recap of the top Israel news stories on November 18, 2020.

And in case you missed our last recap…

The post WATCH: Daily Israel News Recap – November 18, 2020 appeared first on World Israel News.

“The situation will improve in the next few months,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. “Biden can lift all sanctions with three executive orders.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Iran is ready to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal if U.S. President-elect Joe Biden ends sanctions on Tehran, said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“We are ready to discuss how the United States can re-enter the accord,” Zarif told Iranian state media. “The situation will improve in the next few months. Biden can lift all sanctions with three executive orders.”

Biden served as vice-president during the administration of Barack Obama, who entered into the nuclear deal.

“This can be done automatically, and with no need to set conditions: the United States carries out its duties under (Security Council Resolution) 2231 (lift sanctions) and we will carry out our commitments under the nuclear deal,” said Zarif in the state media video.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, re-imposing harsh sanctions on Iran.

Unlike President Hassan Rouhani, Zarif did not demand compensation from the U.S. for re-imposing the sanctions.

“With their illegal and inhuman sanctions and terrorist actions, the Americans have inflicted 150 billion dollars of damage on the people of Iran,” Rouhani said in a televised speech in September.

“We’ve never before seen such an extent of savagery … The address for Iranian people’s curses and hatred is the White House.”

Last week, a bombshell report by nuclear watchdog group the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed Iran has further violated its 2015 nuclear deal by stockpiling 2,442.9 kilograms of enriched uranium.

According to the IAEI report, the Iranian government said that Iran’s goal is to “concentrate” all its enrichment research and development – a phrase which is almost exclusively used for advanced centrifuges – to an underground plant.

The report also explained that uranium particles were found in areas that had not previously been declared to the IAEI.

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Zarif accuses Netanyahu’s supporters of helping Israel murder Palestinian children.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif defended an disgraceful Iranian poster calling for a “Final Solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, claiming it was referring to a referendum submitted to the United Nations last year.

“Disgusting that those whose civilization found a ‘Final Solution’ in gas chambers attack those who seek a real solution at the ballot box, through a REFERENDUM,” Zarif tweeted on Thursday.

“Why are the U.S. and West so afraid of democracy? Palestinians should not have to pay for your crimes, or for your guilt,” he added.

Iran’s “final solution”  – the elimination of Israel – was submitted to the United Nations in November 2019 as “the plan for holding a national referendum in the territory of Palestine” and is published in full on Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s website.

The plan calls for the election of a new government in Israel by an ensured Arab majority, which would then decide what to do with the “non-indigenous residents,” presumably the Jews.

In another tweet on Thursday, Zarif accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supporters of helping Israel murder Palestinian children.

‘Bibi-Firsters’—whether in Foggy Bottom or 1600 Penn—are complicit in all Israeli crimes against humanity,” Zarif tweeted.

“They will have to account for EVERY aggression—from the usurping of Palestinian land & apartheid under the ‘Deal of Century’ to enabling the murder of children with U.S. weapons,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, a propaganda poster was posted on Khamenei’s website that read, “Palestine will be free. The final solution: Resistance until referendum,” and depicted crowds celebrating around Jerusalem, raising Palestinian flags and the flags of various terror groups while burning an Israeli flag.

Following worldwide condemnation for using a Nazi reference, Khamenei said he was only referring to the State of Israel and not the Jewish people as a whole.

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“No Thanks,” tweets U.S. President Donald Trump after Iran’s foreign minister tells a German newspaper that Tehran wants sanctions lifted ahead of any new nuclear negotiations.

By JNS

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that any negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program would have to be conducted with U.S. sanctions in place.

In an apparent response to comments made by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during an interview on Friday with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Trump posted on Twitter in English and Farsi:

“Iranian Foreign Minister says Iran wants to negotiate with The United States, but wants sanctions removed. @FoxNews @OANN No Thanks!”

Iran’s Foreign Minister responded by tweeting on Sunday: “@realdonaldtrump is better advised to base his foreign policy comments & decisions on facts, rather than @FoxNews headlines or his Farsi translators.”

Zarif’s tweet also included an excerpt from the Der Spiegel interview:

Der Spiegel: “Do you rule out the possibility of negotiations with the U.S. following Soleimani’s murder?

Zarif: “No, I never rule out the possibility that people will change their approach and recognize the realities. For us, it doesn’t matter who is sitting in the White House. What matters is how they behave. The Trump administration can correct its past, lift the sanctions and come back to the negotiating table. We’re still at the negotiating table. They’re the ones who left. The U.S. has inflicted great harm on the Iranian people. The day will come when they will have to compensate for that. We have a lot of patience.”

Separately, the deputy head of Iran’s nuclear agency, Ali Asghar Zarean, said in a report published on the agency’s website that “at the moment, if [Iranian authorities] make the decision, the Atomic Energy Organization [of Iran], as the executor, will be able to enrich uranium at any percentage,” Reuters reported.

Iran said earlier this month it would remove limitations on enriching uranium, going against commitments it made in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal.

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Tehran would leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “if Europeans refer the nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council,” the foreign minister warned.

By World Israel News Staff 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Tehran would leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)  “if Europeans insist on their unjustifiable behavior or refer the nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council,” reports the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The NPT is “a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament,” states the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs on its website.

It was “opened for signature in 1968” and “entered into force in 1970. On 11 May 1995, the Treaty was extended indefinitely. A total of 191 states have joined the treaty,” it adds.

Last week, Britain, France, and Germany triggered a dispute mechanism to try to bring Iran back into compliance with an unraveling 2015 nuclear accord (JCPOA) which was reached between Tehran and six world powers including the three which are potentially referring the matter of Iran’s violations to the U.N., as well as Russia, China, and the U.S.

President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear accord in 2018 and began reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic, arguing that the deal was not comprehensive enough.

The JCPOA – Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – was said to be aimed at ensuring that Iran did not develop nuclear weapons, though only for a certain number of years, as sanctions against Tehran would then be dropped.

After the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 deal, Iran looked to European countries who were partners in reaching the accord for help to keep the agreement alive. When the Europeans did not act to Tehran’s satisfaction, Iran began violating the deal.

Monday’s statement by the foreign minister on pulling out of the NPT, as well, marked a further escalation in the Iranian’s apparent determination to attain military weapons.

Regime leaders have repeatedly stated their desire to destroy the State of Israel.

Britain, France, and Germany stated last week that there was “no choice, given Iran’s actions, but to register today our concerns that Iran is not meeting its commitments under the JCPOA  and to refer this matter to the Joint Commission under the Dispute Resolution Mechanism, as set out in paragraph 36 of the JCPOA.”

Iran has countered by charging that the accusations made by the EU are unfounded, criticizing European powers for not fulfilling their own obligations, and arguing that the EU’s resorting to the dispute mechanism lacks legal standing.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is overseeing the process of the dispute mechanism clause, maintained that the aim of the move of employing the clause is to save the 2015 deal.

“The dispute resolution mechanism requires intensive efforts in good faith by all. As the coordinator, I expect all JCPOA participants to approach this process in that spirit,” Borrell said.

“In light of the ongoing dangerous escalations in the Middle East, the preservation of the JCPOA is now more important than ever,” he added.

If the process fails, however, the U.N. Security Council could impose sanctions on Iran.

The post Zarif warns Iran will pull out of nuclear non-proliferation treaty appeared first on World Israel News.

Iran blamed Israel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for the attack and says there will be consequences. 

By World Israel News Staff

Iranian Member of Parliament Abolfazl Hassanbeigi, told Iran’s Mehr news agency that Israel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were to blame for last week’s missile attack on the Iranian oil tanker Sabiti off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.

Hassanbeigi, who is a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said “a video captured by cameras installed on the tanker show the attack was carried out by the U.S., the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia.”

Hassanbeigi takes a step further comments made Tuesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said that the attack on the Iranian oil tanker on October 11 was the work of  one or possibly more states, but that Iran was not ready to assign blame.

“According to information received, the attack on the Iranian tanker has been carried out by one or more governments. Of course, investigations are underway, but as long as we have not reached definitive conclusions, we will not accuse any government,” Zarif said, according to Iran’s PressTV.

The tanker Sabiti, owned by the National Iranian Oil Company, was struck 60 miles off the coast of Jeddah by two missiles.

“The attack on the Iranian tanker was a sophisticated, state-sponsored action,” Zarif said.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani said there would be consequences.

PressTV reported on Tuesday that Iranian media published pictures of the Sabiti with two gaping holes in the hull.

The vessel was carrying 140,000 tons of crude oil, which was preserved after measures were taken to staunch the leak, reports the news site, quoting Mohammad Rastad, head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization.

The vessel is headed for an  Iranian port to undergo repairs.

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No meetings with the U.S. until it stops waging “economic war” against Iran, Zarif said.

By World Israel News Staff

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the country’s supreme leader will not meet President Donald Trump unless Washington halts its “economic terrorism” that has hurt ordinary Iranians. He made his comments Thursday in Kuala Lumpur.

“The United States is engaged in an economic war against the Iranian people, and it won’t be possible for us to engage with the United States unless they stop imposing a war and engaging in economic terrorism against the Iranian people,” Zarif said at a forum on security in the Islamic world.

Zarif says the removal of U.S. sanctions could also help salvage the Iranian nuclear deal, which the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from last year.

“So if they want to come back into the room there is a ticket that they need to purchase and that ticket is to observe the agreement,” he said of the nuclear deal.

He says Tehran has the right to reduce its compliance under the nuclear pact after the U.S. left but it can easily “revert back to full implementation” if the U.S. fulfills its commitment and returns to the table.

He told the forum, “you do not negotiate with terrorists. If they want to negotiate, they have to abandon terrorism,” in reference to the rollback of sanctions.

On Monday, Trump signaled his willingness to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during the G-7 meeting in France. Rouhani rejected the suggestion the next day, saying that first sanctions must be lifted.

The U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran when it exited the 2015 nuclear accord in May 2018. Trump criticized the deal as being ineffective in its goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

AP contributed to this report.

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Iran threatened the remaining signatories to the deal that it would pull out if they didn’t defend Iran’s interests.

By World Israel News Staff

Iran will withdraw from the nuclear agreement if the remaining signatories don’t protect its interests, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif said on Monday at a news conference in Tehran.

“Iran will leave the 2015 nuclear deal with the superpowers if necessary,” Zarif said, adding “We call on Europeans to accelerate efforts to protect the Iranian economy from U.S. sanctions.”

The Europeans have been eager to save the nuclear deal, which has been on the ropes ever since the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in May of last year.

But Iran has also applied pressure to get them to act, publicly announcing it was breaking limits set by the deal on enriched uranium and seizing oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

On July 28, diplomats from Germany, France, Britain, China, Russia and the European Union met in Vienna with Iran to discuss how to salvage the deal.

“The atmosphere was constructive, and the discussions were good,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi told reporters after the meeting.

“I cannot say that we resolved everything” but all the parties are still “determined to save this deal,” he added.

There was a general agreement to organize a higher-level meeting of foreign ministers. A date had not been set.

White House invitation?

Zarif also said at the news conference that the report claiming he’d been invited to the White House by Republican Senator Rand Paul to meet with Trump was true.

On August 2, The New Yorker first broke news of the invitation, which Trump rejected, according to the story. The White House neither confirmed nor denied the report.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina expressed his disapproval in a tweet on August 3: “If true — that an invitation was given to the Foreign Minister of Iran to meet in the Oval Office — no matter how well meaning — it would dramatically undercut our position of strength against Iran.”

By all accounts, U.S. sanctions are having an impact on Iran’s economy.

On July 31, the Iranian government decided to cut four zeros from its currency, the rial. Three years ago, the currency traded at about 37,000 to the dollar. It slumped to around 180,000 last year, after Trump announced he was withdrawing from the nuclear deal and reimposing sanctions.

AP contributed to this report.

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Zarif tweeted Trump, telling him to reject the ‘B-Team’s’ advice, a term the Iranian foreign minister uses to describe a group that favors a tough approach to the Islamic Republic.

By David Isaac, World Israel News 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif directed a tweet to President Donald Trump on Tuesday telling him to “reject B Team’s fake history & its thirst for Forever War.”

Iran’s Tasmin News Agency reported that the tweet came in response to one by Trump earlier on Tuesday that “the Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation,” likely referring to the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by then-President Barack Obama.

Just remember, the Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2019

Zarif’s full tweet read: “For millennia, Iranians have outlasted every aggressor. But, the US has spent $7 trillion & rivers of blood in our region, in its biggest failure since Vietnam. Donald Trump: reject B Team’s fake history & its thirst for Forever War. Diplomacy=prudence; never weakness.”

“B-team” is a term often used by Zarif, Tasnim reports. It refers to a group of politicians which Iran’s leadership says is eager for war. The ‘B’ comes from the letter “B” in all the names of those lumped into the group, the Iranian news site says.

They include U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Tensions with Iran have been on the rise ever since Trump, who referred to the 2015 nuclear agreement as the “worst deal ever” and a “disaster,” announced America’s exit from it in May 2018.

He reimposed sanctions on Iran, gradually increasing their intensity in order to pressure the Islamic Republic to return to the bargaining table and give up its dream of obtaining nuclear weapons.

A White House statement this summer reaffirmed the U.S. position that it would “never allow” Iran to develop a nuclear arsenal.

On July 1, Trump said that Iran was “playing with fire” after it announced it would restart its uranium enrichment in violation of the nuclear agreement.

Although the U.S. pulled out of the agreement, Iran and its European signatories continued to treat the deal as remaining in force.

European countries are eager to save the agreement. But as tensions escalate in the Persian Gulf it looks increasingly unlikely.

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