Spokesman: US Afraid of Zarif’s Logic
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced the US move to impose sanctions on Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, saying Washington is afraid of the top Iranian diplomat’s logic and negotiation skills.
In a post on his Twitter account on Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi mocked the US administration’s “sheer folly” to blacklist Zarif.
"The peak of paradoxical and stupid behavior of the American leaders is that they have repeatedly deemed Dr. Zarif to be an uninfluential figure in Iran’s policy, but nonetheless they sanction him with sheer folly. The Americans are intensely afraid of Dr. Zarif’s logic and his negotiation skills,” Mousavi added.
The spokesman also attached an excerpt of a Reuters report that has quoted a senior US official as saying that the Trump administration was not closing the door to potential nuclear talks with Iran by sanctioning Zarif, who it did not consider a significant decision maker.
On Wednesday, the US Department of State said Washington has designated Zarif for acting on behalf of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. The US president had issued an executive order on June 24, imposing sanctions on the Leader and his office and authorizing sanctions on others associated with Ayatollah Khamenei.
