Russia on Thursday slapped the U.S. decision to sanction Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“The U.S. has only one tool – sanctions,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova during a press conference.
“This tool does not work. This tool has not approved itself. This tool has discredited both itself and those who apply it,” she said.
The U.S. sanctioned Russia 71 times, she mentioned, but “it did not turn the country from an independent course.”
“The U.S. corners itself strips itself of the possibility to use a wide range of diplomatic tools,” by threatening for sanctions only, Zakharova said.
She also accused the United States of escalating the tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The U.S. is deliberately inflating the situation, including organizing a pirate seizure of an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar to strengthen the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf under the pretext of ‘ensuring freedom of navigation,’” she said.
“There is a feeling that Washington is looking for a reason to escalate the situation, to continue the aggressive rhetoric against Iran and to move to a more active and hot phase of the conflict,” she added.
Washington imposed economic sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for working on behalf of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who U.S. President Trump blacklisted in June.
Zarif quickly responded to the sanction and neglected all the concerns by saying it “has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran”.
Washington-Tehran relations have been exacerbating since Washington unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal last year.
The U.S. has launched a diplomatic campaign to push Iran to bind with the deal. Whereas, Iran showed zero interest to do so and keep enriching its Uranium stock.
