Iran’s Zarif slams US-led sanctions against Tehran

Speaking in New York on Wednesday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the United States is “infatuated” and “obsessed” with sanctions and such measures will get nowhere.

The Iranian foreign minister argued that the US Congress wants the anti-Iran sanctions to remain in place amid negotiations aimed at reaching a final nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

“The US is obsessed with sanctions, because this deal would require the US to lift the sanctions and now the reason Congress is objecting to this is that it wants to keep these sanctions…. Yes, sanctions have become an end in themselves, sanctions do not serve any purpose,” Zarif stated.

The Iranian foreign minister also stated that the sanctions have failed to put limits on Iran’s nuclear energy program and Tehran has increased the number of its centrifuges, adding, “So sanctions have produced, just in normal calculus, 18,800 centrifuges.”

The remarks come ahead of a new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain – plus Germany in New York.

The two sides have agreed on the extension of the talks until November due to disagreements on key issues.