Iran, which had been fully complying with all of its commitments despite the US pullout and the European shortfalls, began scaling down its commitments to the JCPOA in early July.

Zarif also reacted to the United States’ recent sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank, saying the move clearly shows Washington’s “desperate approach” toward the Islamic Republic.

“The Americans have imposed any sanctions they could on the Islamic Republic. What they are doing now is sanctioning an entity which has been sanctioned before under a different pretext,” he added.

“The new sanctions are aimed at blocking Iran’s international transactions and its access to food and medicine. This move is unacceptable and dangerous.”

Earlier on Friday, US President Donald Trump announced the move and added that the sanctions imposed on Iran’s Central Bank were the highest sanctions ever imposed on a foreign country by Washington.

In response to the move, Iran’s Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati described the new sanctions a sign of Washington’s inability to exert “leverage.”

Ever since quitting the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018, Trump has been running what he refers to as a “maximum pressure” campaign, which seeks to pressure Iran into negotiating a new deal that addresses its ballistic missile program and regional influence.

The tense situation between the two countries has become more complicated since Yemen’s recent attacks on Saudi oil installations.

Yemen’s Ansarullah conducted strikes on two of Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on September 14, in Abqaiq and Khurais. The attacks led to a halt in about 50 percent of the Arab kingdom’s crude and gas production, causing a surge in oil prices.

The Yemeni forces publicly took credit for the attacks, but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo swiftly blamed Iran.

Tehran has categorically rejected the claim, while there has been speculation that the US may take military or other forms of action against Iran or Iranian interests.

Zarif has warned that a possible military strike against Iran by the US or Saudi Arabia would unleash an “all-out” war in the region.

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The commander also noted that after Iran shot down a US spy drone over the Persian Gulf in July, the IRGC Aerospace Force was on high alert in a way that Iranian missiles were zeroed in on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, and an American warship in the Sea of Oman.

“We would have hit those targets if the US had shown a reaction,” he said.

“We have been constantly preparing ourselves for a full-fledged war,” General Hajizade added.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in June shot down an intruding American spy drone over the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

The intruding drone was shot by Iran’s homegrown air defense missile system “Khordad-3rd”.

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Steinmeier, alongside a number of heads of state and government, was in Poland to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII. In Wielun, he was accompanied by Polish President Andrzej Duda and the mayor of the city, Pawel Okrasa, among others.

Before dawn on September 1, 1939, the Luftwaffe bombarded the sleeping defenseless city that had no military significance. Some 1,200 people were killed.

The first bombs were dropped on the town’s hospital, which had a red cross painted on its roof. Some 75 percent of the city center was destroyed.

The attack marked the beginning of WWII, in which six million Polish citizens perished, including three million Jews.

“We cannot forget about World War II even when its witnesses are gone… in order to make sure that what happened in Wielun and later in many other places in Poland and abroad is never repeated,” Duda said.

“It is the Germans who committed a crime against humanity in Poland. Anyone who claims it is over, that the national-socialists’ reign of terror over Europe is a marginal event in German history judges that for himself,” Steinmeier added in the presence of his Polish counterpart.

The Polish president thanked his German counterpart for choosing to come to Wielun for the anniversary commemorations, saying it would help spread the knowledge about the bombing of the city among Germans.

“Thanks to your presence here… the Germans will learn about the tragedy of Wielun and its inhabitants and [what] the beginning of World War II looked like,” Duda said.

The heads of state will later tour the Wielun museum and meet with local survivors of the September 1, 1939 bombing.

“I saw dead bodies, the wounded… Smoke, noise, explosions. Everything was burning,” Wielun bombing survivor Tadeusz Sierandt, 88, told AFP ahead of the anniversary.

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The remarks came as the United States is enhancing its military presence in the Persian Gulf region after it adopted a maximum pressure policy against Iran. The Trump administration has taken numerous hostile actions against Iran during the past two years, including imposing unilateral sanctions, designating IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization, and most recently, trying to form a coalition in the region which it claims to be aimed at securing shipping in the Hormuz Strait but believed to be a force against Iran.

“We are proud of giving a response to others’ bullying behavior and achieving victory. No one ever thought that we could take down a US drone and they [Americans] fail to show reaction or that they seize our ship [oil tanker Grace 1] and then forced to release it,” Kharrazi also said.

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Shortly after the announcement, Iran warned the Israeli regime over the consequences of such decision.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said the Islamic Republic considers possible Israeli presence in a US-led coalition in the Persian Gulf as a clear threat to its national security and reserves the right to counter it within the framework of the country’s deterrence and defensive policy.

“The US regime and the illegitimate Zionist regime are responsible for all the consequences of this dangerous move,” he added.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said on August 7 that the regime would be part of the US-led coalition to “protect the security of the Persian Gulf”.

Katz claimed that Israel was determined to stop “Iranian entrenchment” in the Middle East region and strengthen Tel Aviv’s relationship with Persian Gulf countries.

The Zionist regime’s possible presence in the coalition comes with multiple goals, hence brings various consequences:

1. Containing Iran; one of the main reasons behind the Israelis’ interest in joining the coalition is to seize the opportunity to make their wish come true to contain Iran in the Persian Gulf.

2. Accompanying the US in its anti-Iran policies to boost such hostilities.

3. Ensuring the Arab countries’ security under the US protective umbrella; although the Israeli regime does not have any navy, the so-called coalition would give it the opportunity to claim its protective role for the Persian Gulf’s Arab states.

4. Normalizing ties with Arab countries. Former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had once said he was afraid of Arabs’ all-out invasion, wishing to normalize the Zionists’ relations with them. In the same vein, Katz has expressed hope that the Zionists manage to sign agreements on complete normalization of ties with the Persian Gulf littoral Arab states as the regime’s first step.

5. the possible presence of Europeans, including France and Germany in the coalition will be equal to the violation and complete death of the Iran nuclear deal.

6. The Israelis’ presence in the Persian Gulf will foment the tensions and add to the volatility of the region, and will be considered as an element threatening Iran’s security; however, Iran has warned that it reserves the right to defend itself against the Zionists’ threats.

7. The presence of the mentioned coalition, just like any other trans-regional coalition, is basically against the United Nations Charter. Besides, creating a military coalition against a member-state of the UN will need the organization’s permission. According to the UN Charter’s Article 52, the international body recognizes establishing regional arrangements to maintain international peace and security. But, firstly the US-proposed coalition is not a “regional” organization since the trans-regional states play the major role in it; and secondly, under the UN Charter’s Article 53, the UN Security Council shall, where appropriate, utilize such regional arrangements or agencies for enforcement action under its authority, and no enforcement action shall be taken under regional arrangements or by regional agencies without the authorization of the Council.

8. By joining the collation, the Israelis seek to show Iran as the main threat in the region; that is somehow the Zionists’ way of projection to divert the attention from their occupation, which is in fact the main reason behind the region’s conflicts.

9. Linking the Persian Gulf security to that of the Bab-el-Mandeb in line with the Saudis’ plans is aimed at curbing Iran’s regional policies and engaging other international players in the regional developments. This is while the Persian Gulf legal status must be determined by its states, as the right to ensure the safety of vessels in the international waters is reserved for the littoral countries.

10. Establishing a coalition with the leadership of the United States basically means the provision of the grounds for triggering a war in the region and will bring multiple consequences with it.

11. Although the Arab front that had worried Ben-Gurion has been eliminated due to some Arab ruler’s parallel policies with the Israelis, the Resistance Front is still making the regime lose sleep.

12. Israelis presence in this coalition will be a clear declaration of war against the Islamic Republic, and any offensive against the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf will be within the UN Charter’s frameworks in order to defend Iran’s integrity and security.

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World leaders should not compare Iran with other countries and should understand how dangerous it will be to wage war against it, Imran Khan added.

Pakistan will do its best to reduce tensions in the region, he stressed.

Tensions in the region initially erupted after Washington withdraw from the nuclear deal and imposed economic sanctions on Iran, mainly targeting its oil revenues. US hostile policies didn’t end here as Trump administration also designated Iran’s IRGC, which is in charge of providing the Persian Gulf with security, as a foreign terrorist organization and also in their latest measure, imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif; a measure which many experts believe to prove the empty claims of US about readiness for talks with Iran.

After Iran seized a UK-flagged oil tanker in the Persian Gulf because it had failed to abide by international maritime regulations, US proposed to establish a coalition in the Persian Gulf claiming it to be aimed at securing international waters but believed to be a coalition against Iran; this can eventually escalate the already tense situation in the Middle East.

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“The existing course of affairs and events show that our diplomacy will definitely fulfill our aimed results,” he said.

“The military capabilities of our Armed Forces are to such an extent that the enemies don’t dare go for a military option against us,” Pourdastan said, highlighting, “the Persian Gulf is like a tinderbox and explosion of the first firecracker can lead to a huge disaster.”

Tensions in the region erupted after US implemented a series of hostile policies on Iran, namely the withdrawal from the nuclear deal, re-imposition of economic sanctions, deploying forces in the region, and designating IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization among others. Tehran says it doesn’t look for war but also stresses that it will strongly defend against any possible threats.

The situation became more complicated when UK Royal Forces seized a tanker laden with Iranian oil in Gibraltar, claiming that the shipment was headed to Syria which is under EU sanctions. Iran strongly condemned the illegal seizure, noting that the tanker was not headed to Syria and that Iran is not an EU member to be subject to such embargos. In the last string of events some two weeks later, a UK-flagged oil tanker crossing the Strait of Hormuz turned off its transponder and was moving in the wrong direction after colliding with an Iranian vessel and ignoring warnings of Iranian forces. The ship was eventually seized by IRGC due to failure to abide by international regulations.

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“The history of wars in western Asia during the past four decades show that human and material losses for war initiators including Saddam [Hussein], America, the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia, were the result of their mistakes in calculations and decision-making. Lengthening and expansion of wars, too, happened due to other factors which couldn’t be calculated,” he added.

The commander went on to say that it is the “the ability to manage the war in wide geographical regions in an extended time” which will determine the fate of war, not “the destruction power” of involved parties.

Tensions in the region erupted after US implemented a series of hostile policies on Iran, namely withdrawal from the nuclear deal, re-imposition of economic sanctions, deploying forces in the region, and designating IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization among others. Tehran says it doesn’t look for war but also stresses that it will strongly defend against any possible threats.

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Addressing the meeting, Aghajani highlighted the significance of multilateralism and collective wisdom in achieving stability and sustainable development in the region.

The Iranian diplomat said it is vital to discuss the Persian Gulf issue with figures who can contribute to resolving the challenges in the region.

Aghajani criticized the hostile policies of US President Donald Trump, saying, since Trump took office two years ago, Washington has shown various violent behaviors against other countries over the last two years.

The US’ attempt to create a war coalition with neighboring countries, its unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, signing big arms contracts aiming to turn the region into a big bomb, imposing sanctions against Iran which are the signs of economic terrorism, and sending more troops to the region, as well as using psychological, intelligence and cyberwar against Iran and breaching the territorial integrity and political borders are among the US’ warmongering and hostile activities in the past year, he added.

He went on to say that pulling out of the international and bilateral commitments, imposing trade tariffs which have resulted in war of tariffs against some important countries like China, Russia and Iran, imposing sanctions against countries that are not under the US control, creating regional coalitions aiming to develop US policies, adopting anti-immigration policies against Latin America are examples the US transgressed the International Law and the Charter of the United Nations, Aghajani noted.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian diplomat described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as one of the main opponents of stability in the region, saying he was after annulling the nuclear deal since the very beginning of its implementation.

The also criticized Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their positions that clearly undermine the regional interests.

The official reiterated that mutual understanding and respecting the sovereignty of other states will be vital as well as removing sanctions in helping improve the region’s situation.

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Current conditions in the world and in the region are requiring forces to be more ready than ever, he said.

The commander went on to say that military readiness of Iran can foil enemies’ sinister plots against the country.

“During the Sacred Defense years [8 years of imposed Iran-Iraq war], we proved to the world the level of our adherence to Revolution’s ideals. Stronger than before, we will not budge an inch on defending our ideals and the country,” he also stressed.

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