Iran Blasts US Diplomat’s Efforts to Scare Off UK Firms

As tweeted by Hamid Baeidijenad, Woody Johnson had already warned British companies over any violations of US sanctions, and while reiterating Washington’s stances said UK firms had to choose between working with Iran and working with the United States.

In his tweet, the Iranian diplomat described Johnson as “Mr. Trump’s ambassador to London,” saying, “This language of threat and force is blatant hypocrisy, especially when it comes from a businessman whose grandfather’s Johnson & Johnson (company) had been active in Iran for years, even when Iran was under sanctions.”

Baeidinejad said the United States is on the horns of a dilemma.

“It is the US that is in a dilemma; it should either keep discrediting itself by continuing to breach the Iran nuclear deal and international law, or return to the Iran nuclear deal and abide by an agreement that it has signed itself. There is no third option,” wrote the Iranian ambassador.

Johnson had said in a tweet on October 22 that, “Companies have a choice: Do business with #Iran or with the US – you can’t do both. Sanctions come into effect Nov 4.”

Back in August, Johnson wrote an article in the Sunday Telegraph, where he called on the UK to side with Trump on Iran or risk “serious trade consequences” for UK businesses.

Woody Johnson is a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I, the co-founder of Johnson & Johnson.

The company was founded by Joseph Lister, Robert Wood Johnson and his brothers James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson in 1886 and was named Johnson & Johnson.