Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and their allies in the Yemeni army deployed as many as 10 drones to bomb Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco before dawn Saturday. US and its allies rushed to blame Iran for the attacks without providing any credible evidence.

“Yemen’s measure was a reaction to various illegal actions and war crimes of Saudi Arabia and had nothing to do with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Boroujerdi added.

“No Iranian forces are in Yemen,” highlighted the MP, adding that Yemen’s recent retaliatory measure was based on its own domestic capabilities.

He went on to stress that “American and Saudi officials and their allies are trying to establish ‘maximum deceit’ along with the ‘maximum pressure’ against the Iranian nation because they are in a position of failure.”

The unprecedented attack knocked out more than half of Saudi crude output, or 5% of global supply, prompting Saudi and US officials to claim without any evidence that it probably originated from Iraq or Iran.

In reaction to US baseless accusations, Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that “These comments and measures seem to be plans of secret organizations and intelligence services to tarnish the image of a country in a bid to prepare the ground for measures in the future. Americans are pursuing a policy dubbed ‘maximum pressure’ which has now turned into ‘maximum deceit’ due to its failures.”

Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition of its vassal states in waging war on Yemen since March 2015 to reinstall former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who resigned from presidency and fled to Riyadh in January 2015 amid popular outcry over corruption and mismanagement of the economy. Yemen’s Ansarullah forces then took over state matters to prevent the country from descending into chaos.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the Saudi-led war has claimed the lives of over 60,000 Yemenis since January 2016.

The war has taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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“We could install a new generation of centrifuges, that is IR6 and IR8…or we could increase the stockpile of our enriched uranium…In the third step, we must restore the Arak heavy water reactor to its previous design,” he said.

Asked whether Iran has already defined its measures for the fourth or fifth step of scaling down JCPOA commitments, Zonnour said “I personally believe that the government should have taken all necessary measures in one step instead of giving a two-month deadline to the other side for each step. I can imagine a fifth and sixth step with Rouhani’s administration.”

On the anniversary of US’ unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and lack of practical measures from the European signatories to the agreement, Tehran began rowing back on its nuclear commitments twice in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA.

Iran says its reciprocal measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to safeguard Iran’s economic interests in the face of unilateral US sanctions which were imposed when President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal.

As a first step Iran increased its enriched uranium stockpile to beyond the 300 kilograms set by the JCPOA. In the second step, Tehran began enriching uranium to purity rates beyond the JCPOA-limit of 3.76 percent.

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“Mr Zarif will brief lawmakers about the negotiations which were held and also his trip to Europe,” the senior MP added, but he did not specify the date of the session.

Foreign Minister Zarif went on a European tour last week, visiting Finland, Sweden, Norway. He held high-level talks with the European countries’ senior officials on a host of bilateral as well as international issues. Zarif also paid two visits to France last week upon the invitation of his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, one of which came concurrently with the G7 summit in Biarritz. The talks have been reportedly focused on ways to salvage the nuclear deal which is in jeopardy since the United States’ unilateral withdrawal in May 2018, as well as de-escalating tensions in the region.

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During the meeting, Zonnour stressed that the inefficiency of international organizations and the weakness of certain countries have allowed the US to make decisions for them.

“Independent countries, particularly the Muslim ones, need to unite and stop the US from interfering in their decisions and relations with other countries,” he stressed.

Zonnour went on to add that despite the US sanctions, Iran has managed to become self-sufficient in developing its own military equipment, such as submarines, missiles, tanks, helicopters and frigates.

He then voiced Iran’s readiness to expand cooperation with Indonesia in the sectors of energy, technical-engineering services, as well as security-defense and military.

The Indonesian parliamentary official, for his part, voiced regret over the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, adding “Indonesia has always supported this international agreement, because it shows Iran’s compliance with it.”

“We hope that despite the US sanctions, the amicable ties between Iran and Indonesia will develop,” he added.

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Naghavi Hosseini has written in his tweet that Iran will vigorously continue its nuclear activities in line with the previously announced policies, and it is up to the Europeans who have to come up with a solution before it is too late.

The spokesman’s remarks came within only hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also announced on Saturday that reductions in JCPOA commitments will continue in accordance with the 2015 nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On May 8, the anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal (JCPOA), Iran announced that it was partially discontinuing its obligations under the JCPOA and urged nuclear deal remaining signatories – China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom – to shield Tehran from Washington’s sanctions.

Tehran says its countermeasures fit within its rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the nuclear deal, and that it will reverse the measures once its demands are met.

Iran has already implemented the first and second phases of its actions in reducing its JCPOA commitments by increasing the stockpile of enriched uranium above the 300kg outlined by the JCPOA and has increased the level of uranium enrichment above the 3.67% level. It has warned that it will increase the enrichment level to 20% if the other parties continue to not abide by their commitments under the deal.

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“Another objective of theirs was to ‘escape forward’, because the European sides to the nuclear deal have failed to live up to their commitments to the agreement and now seek to overshadow their JCPOA violations,” he added.

On early Thursday morning, British Royal Marines in Gibraltar stormed the 300,000-tonne Grace 1 and detained it, accusing it of carrying oil to Syria in possible violation of the European Union’s sanctions on the war-torn Arab country.

According to Gibraltar authorities, the 28 crewmembers, who are nationals of India, Pakistan and Ukraine, are currently staying aboard the tanker, along with local police and customs officers boarding the vessel for a period of a probe.

Iran has condemned the move as “maritime piracy” and summoned Britain’s ambassador in protest over the measure.

Jalami maintained that Britain will always follow the US’ policies.

He also stressed the need for pursuing the case through legal channels and the UN Security Council.

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Reacting to the announcement, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Abolfazl Hassanbeigi, told Mehr correspondent that Europe has always had the US’ interests at heart.

“After the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, Europe did nothing to implement this international agreement, and only bought time to keep Iran committed to the deal,” he said.

“Europe’s promises aim to buy time for the US,” he said, adding “Iran is not hopeful about Europe’s commitments to the deal.”

He went on to add, “if the JCPOA has no benefit for us, there is no reason for it to have benefits for Europeans and Americans. Iran must keep its promise on reducing commitments to the JCPOA.”

“As long as Europe has not taken a practical measure to live up to its commitments regarding the JCPOA, and trade and banking transactions with Iran, any backtrack on our position is a mistake,” he stressed.

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“Currently, the issue is not just the US’ intrusion into Iran’s territorial waters, but also the assistance from those countries which provide military bases for US, including the United Arab Emirates where the drone took off. Lodging a complaint against US for violating Iran’s airspace and Foreign Ministry’s measures in this regard will also be discussed in the meetings,” he said.

He appreciated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for showing ‘vigilance’ in the incident, adding that the incident proved that the Islamic Republic is always vigilant.

In a statement issued early on Thursday, IRGC said a US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region, which sits in the central district of Jask County, after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.

Despite US claims that the drone had been flying over international waters, Iran says it has retrieved sections of drone in its own territorial waters where it was shot down. Foreign Minister Zarif said in a tweet hours after the incident that Iran would “take this new aggression to UN & show that the US is lying about international waters.”

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On the domestic level, the report mentions the following instances of human rights violations in the United States: the right to keep and bear arms which consequently violates citizens’ right to live; police brutality; severe judicial sentences; violation of Muslims’ rights; racial discrimination; violation of immigrants’ rights; privacy violation; violation of the rights of the press and media.

On the international level, the report mentions the following instances of human rights violations in the United States: US support of terrorism; intervention in other countries’ internal affairs, such as Iran and Venezuela; ignoring human rights violations carried out by Saudi Arabia and the Israeli regime.

The report concludes that the United States uses human rights as an instrument to exert pressure on countries that opposes it in a bid to achieve its own objectives.

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The remarks came after a report by the Wall Street Journal which claimed that US officials will designate IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. The move could be announced as early as Monday, April 8, according to WSJ. If carried out, it will mark the first time another country’s military has been branded as a terrorist group.

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