Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
Iran will not be pressured into negotiations by the United States, but if authorities in Washington act towards it with respect, Tehran will respond accordingly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said today.
The two countries have been drawn into starker confrontation since May, when Washington mounted pressure on Tehran by ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil, and the future of Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers hangs in the balance.
Washington has tightened sanctions and dispatched extra forces to the Middle East, and US fighter jets came within minutes of conducting airstrikes on Iran last month after Tehran downed an unmanned American drone.
“Iran will rather force them not to speak with a language other than respect and not to threaten an Iranian,” Zarif said.
These pressures are imposed due to US continuous regional and international defeats against Iran, he added.
The top Iranian diplomat said US concluded that Iran has been freed from all impediments after signing the nuclear deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran has also been able to enhance its regional reputation and prestige in the region and on the contrary, the US has been driven to further isolation, Zarif added according to IRNA news agency.
He said that the US has asked to convene the Security Council four times last year in desperate attempt to form consensus against Iran, “but to no avail.”
“Then the Americans had to take advantage of the only option which was economic sanctions,” he reiterated.
Pointing to US defeats in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, Zarif said Americans tried to put pressures by taking advantage of the opportunity achieved by domination of dollar but in fact they created problems for themselves.
