In a Twitter message on Sunday, Zarif called for “a global vaccination response” to confront the pandemic, which has killed more than 3 million people across the world.

But global vaccination efforts, he emphasized, have been restricted “whether due to sanctions & #MedicalTerrorism against Iranians, or out of malice toward Palestinians.”

The US “has a vaccine surplus,” Zarif pointed out.

The top Iranian diplomat has repeatedly denounced the illegal and unilateral US sanctions that have blocked the country’s access to crucial medical supplies during the pandemic.

Iran is battling the highly contagious virus under illegal sanctions which the United States re-imposed against the country after withdrawing from a UN-backed nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers three years ago.

Washington, under former president Donald Trump, then unleashed a so-called maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic, characterized by sweeping economic sanctions that also hit Iran’s health sector.

The sanctions have intensified the adverse effects of the pandemic and hindered the government’s pathways to contain the deadly virus.

Iran has seen an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. The country has recorded more than 2.3 million infections and a death toll of over 69,000.

President Hassan Rouhani said earlier this month that Washington had blocked Tehran’s access to ten million doses of a coronavirus vaccine by pressuring the companies that were transferring the vaccines to Iran.

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Mohammad Javad Zarif made the remarks in his meeting with the members of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on Monday, according to IRNA.

In this meeting, Zarif presented a complete report on last week’s talks in Vienna and explained how to follow the country’s definite positions in these talks.

Referring to yesterday’s incident in Natanz, the Foreign Minister stressed the need for proper protection of facilities and nuclear scientists in this critical situation.

Zarif said that the political and military officials of the Zionist regime had explicitly stated that they would not allow progress in lifting the oppressive sanctions and now they think that they will achieve their goal but the Zionists will be responded to by further nuclear progress.

Natanz will be made stronger than before using more advanced machines, he noted, adding that they are wrong if they think that this will weaken Iran’s position in talks. “On the contrary, this act will strengthen Iran’s position in the negotiations.”

The negotiating parties should know that if they used to face enrichment facilities with first-generation machines, now Natanz can be full of advanced centrifuges with multiple enrichment capacities, the minister stressed.

The Zionists want to take revenge on the Iranian people for their success in way of lifting the oppressive sanctions, but Iran will not allow them and will take revenge for these actions on the Zionists, Zarif highlighted.

The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Sunday that an incident took place in a part of the electricity distribution network of Shahid Ahmadi Roshan facility in Natanz.

In his reaction to today’s incident that occurred in Natanz Nuclear Site,  Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Chief Ali-Akbar Salehi said that Iran reserves the rights to act against perpetrators of the Natanz incident.

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The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that the broadening of cooperation with Central Asia and civilizational, historical, and cultural commonalities with regional states have always been a priority for Iran.

In a relevant development earlier this week, Zarif and President Rahmon discussed bilateral relations in various fields, including economic issues, trade, energy, industry, transportation, science, and culture.

The two sides also highlighted the important role of the joint commission for cooperation between the two countries.

The Iranian foreign minister and President Rahmon also called for cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism, drug trafficking, and other cross-border organized crime.

Also on Monday, Zarif and his Afghan counterpart Hanif Atmar in a meeting in Dushanbe underlined the need to expand bilateral relations in different fields.

During the meeting held on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference in Tajikistan’s capital on Monday, Zarif and Atmar explored avenues for further bolstering and reinvigorating mutual cooperation.

During the meeting, Zarif blasted the efforts made by some countries and movements to harm Iran-Afghanistan relations.

The Iranian foreign minister, meantime, pointed to lifting consular limitations for Afghan nationals and said that these measures are aimed at fighting human trafficking gangs.

He also called for efforts to clarify Afghan nationals’ presence in Iran.

Atmar, for his part, appreciated Iran’s assistance in containing the fire in Afghan customs at common borders.

He described Iran as the closest friend for Afghanistan and called for developing constructive cooperation and consultations in economic and political fields.

Atmar also voiced Afghanistan’s readiness for holding a joint commission meeting within weeks.

The first Asian Heart Conference, also known as the Istanbul Process, was held in Istanbul in 2011 with the participation of foreign ministers from 14 countries to expand regional cooperation towards Afghanistan in 2011 with the focus of Afghanistan and Turkey’s efforts.

China, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates were among the countries whose representatives attended the first Asia Heart Trends Conference.

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“Iran has always said that the United States should leave the region.”

Iranian Foreign Minister also talked of Afghanistan-Iran relations, Iran’s relations with the Taliban, the situation of Afghan refugees in Iran, and the Liwa Fatemiyoun.

He noted that Iran has not yet removed the Taliban from the terrorist group.

About Fatemiyoun, he said, “These are the best forces the Afghan government can use if it wishes.”

The full interview will be published in a few days.

Iran believes that the presence of foreign forces is a source of instability in the region and calls for foreign troops for an orderly and responsible withdrawal from the regional countries.

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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Javad Zarif reasserts Iran’s position that its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is not open to renegotiation and that the U.S. has to observe the agreement and the UN resolution that endorses it.

The deal “will never be renegotiated, period,” Zarif said on Thursday, addressing the 6th edition of the Rome Mediterranean Dialogues 2020.

Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal was made between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries – the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany – in Vienna in 2015. It put some restrictions on Iran’s nuclear energy program in exchange for sanction relief.

The United States, though, left the deal in 2018 under President Donald Trump, returned the sanctions, and threatened those who would not abide by the economic measures with “secondary sanctions.”

In committing the breaches against the historic deal, the Trump administration acted as a “rogue regime,” Zarif regretted.

He advised that the U.S. end its “grave breach” of the JCPOA and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that has endorsed the nuclear deal, because Washington “has walked out of the nuclear agreement, but did not walk out of the United Nations.”

“It (the United States) has obligations, responsibilities as a UN member, as a Security Council member. And there’s a Security Council Resolution 2231, which the US must observe,” the senior diplomat noted.

Zarif said if the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden continues to ask Iran to come and renegotiate the JCPOA, it would be walking in the same “rogue” steps as Trump’s team.

However, Washington “is not in a position to set conditions” for implementing its own commitments under the JCPOA and has to cease its violation of the international law, the Iran’s top diplomat asserted.

He, therefore, reiterated that Tehran would not be negotiating something that has already been negotiated, adding that the deal’s original “give-and-take” raison d’etre has to be respected, instead of an attitude that is based on “one side asking and the other side giving.”

Zarif said if the West, namely the U.S. and its allies in the deal, insisted on their continued violation of the JCPOA, Iran would have to act on a pending parliamentary measure that would restrict the UN nuclear agency’s access to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.

He was referring to a double-urgency draft bill that was recently approved in Majlis (Iranian Parliament). The measure has mandated the government to limit the UN nuclear watchdog’s regulatory access, and tasked it with empowering the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program further in retaliation for the Western non-commitment to the nuclear accord.

The Iranian foreign minister was also asked about conditions in Iran given the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic, in answer to which he described the situation facing the Islamic Republic as “pretty bad.”

He reminded that Iran has been hit by a third wave of infections, and its medical staff have been putting up with too much for too long.

The reason that the country has been overwhelmed by the virus to such an extent was that it is “suffering from something more than the rest of the world is,” he said. “And that is an economic war. This is way beyond restrictions,” the official noted, referring to the sanctions.

He also lamented that the U.S. has, meanwhile, been preventing Iran from gaining access to billions of dollars in its overseas financial resources to buy vaccines.

He further said Iran was ready to engage in further prisoner swaps after last week exchanging a jailed British-Australian academic with three Iranians detained abroad.

“We can always engage in that, it is in the interests of everybody,” Zarif told an Italian diplomatic conference speaking via video-link. “Iran is ready to reciprocate. We can do it tomorrow. We can also do it today.”

Zarif, meanwhile, identified Yemen as another country that has been hit hardest by the virus in the region.

The impoverished country is struggling with the outbreak while it is also experiencing the six straight year of a Saudi Arabia-led invasion and economic blockade. The combined Saudi-led measures that have been seeking to restore power to Yemen’s former Riyadh-allied officials have killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and devastated the country’s health system.

The Saudi-led invading coalition enjoys unstinting support from the US and its Western allies in terms of weapon supplies, political patronage, and logistical assistance.

Zarif said the same Western and regional officials, who have brought Iran under the economic “siege,” have also afflicted Yemen with its blockade, Zarif said.

He reminded that he used to identify the warlike team as “B-Team,” comprising Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and former US national security advisor John Bolton.

Although Bolton is no longer serving in the position, Zarif said the architects of the draconian restrictions targeting Iran and Yemen were still “the same gang.”

The foreign minister also addressed the West’s insistence on talks about Iran’s missile program and regional influence. He said these issued were intentionally kept out of the talks leading to the conclusion of the JCPOA because “the other sides were not prepared to end their malign behavior in our region.”

As instances of the vicious Western actions targeting the Middle East region, including the Persian Gulf, Zarif cited its selling more arms to the region than any other part of the world, namely more than $100 billion worth of weapons, last year, its support for the war on Yemen, and its support for Israeli terrorism.

He reminded that the Israeli regime has been able to keep up its deadly aggressive actions thanks to the Western-sourced impunity.

The regime, he noted, has therefore carried on with annexation of Palestinian territories and assassinated yet another Iranian nuclear scientist as early as last week “without condemnation, without consequences.”

“When they are ready to deal with their own problems of their own malign behavior in the region, their malign support for a terrorist regime, then they can start talking about other things,” Zarif said.

However, “as long as they’re not able to put up, they have to shut up,” he concluded.

The post Zarif Rules Out Renegotiating Nuclear Deal With Biden appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Here is the text of his speech:

Mr. President,

Seventy-five years ago, the United Nations was founded to restore international peace and security in the aftermath of two horrific wars. But how successful have we been?

According to a new study, since 2001—ironically, the “United Nation’s Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations”—37 million people have been displaced as a result of the U.S. “Forever Wars”.

The eight violent wars that the US initiated or joined since 2001—under the rubric of “War on Terror”—have resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, countless broken societies and families, failed and failing states and unprecedented extremism.

So today, we should be asking ourselves:

Whether our world is more—or less—secure than it was in 1945;

“Zarif urges UN to unite against US unilateral actions”

How we can counter the unilateralism and disdain for international law by a bully that only knows wielding a big stick and speaking arrogantly;

And how we can contain a power that has spent over 220 of its total 244 year-history in war: from the wars on its native population, to the war on its enslaved population—which continues with extreme brutality—and to the 39 military conflicts and nearly 120 economic wars—it deceptively calls “sanctions”—since 1945. Against any entity that hasn’t submitted to its whims.

Ironically, it keeps losing its “Forever Wars”.

In fact, no one wins in a war.

It’s time to change tack—saving American blood and treasure and sparing the world from further misery.

“Zarif urges UN to unite against US unilateral actions”

Dear Friends,

Complacency is the oxygen that the US needs to continue its bullying.  U.S. appetite only grows by appeasement; by submitting to its unlawful measures against others, in the hope of avoiding its wrath. It does not work, my friends.

Our United Nations at 75 needs to recommit itself to stand up—united—against unilateralism and war.

I thank you.

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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar yesterday met with Iran’s Foriegn Minister Javad Zarif in Tehran. Jaishankar had made stopover in Iran as part of his key Moscow visit. Calling the meet “productive”, the EAM tweeted, “Discussed strengthening our bilateral cooperation and reviewed regional developments. Thank him for his gracious hospitality.”

This is the 2nd time any top Indian minister is visiting Iran within a week. Defence minister Rajnath Singh had visited Iran over the weekend while coming from Russia and meet with Iran’s Defence Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami.

During the meeting Zarif, Jaishankar discussed mutual cooperation and ties in a meeting in Tehran.

In this meeting also the latest regional and global development was reviewed by two top diplomats.

After the meeting, Zarif wrote on his Twitter account, “Pleased to host my Indian counterpart @DrSJaishankar in Tehran for talks today. Discussed expansion of bilateral relations and trade, and exchanged views on important regional issues.”

He also tweeted about the meeting, saying “active engagement with our neighborhood is our top priority”.

Meanwhile Jaishankar also tweeted, “A productive meeting with FM @JZarif during a stopover in Tehran. Discussed strengthening our bilateral cooperation and reviewed regional developments. Thank him for his gracious hospitality.”

The meeting was planned some time ago, when Jaishankar confirmed his participation at the SCO meeting. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, who had also gone to Moscow last week, had made a stop in Iran on his return.

According to Indian media, China and Iran are on the verge of signing an economic and strategic agreement worth $400 billion, but India wants to ensure that the Chabahar project in the West Asian country doesn’t see any Chinese involvement.

This was among the reasons why  Jaishankar, who was travelling to Moscow Tuesday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s foreign ministers’ meeting, made a stopover in Iran’s capital Tehran to meet his counterpart Zarif.

The China-Iran agreement, which will overshadow the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is set to include a major port development project on the Strait of Hormuz. India is concerned that the deal is set to be signed at a time when it hasn’t been able to complete the Chabahar Port project due to the stringent American sanctions imposed on Iran, diplomatic sources have said.

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