DUBAI - Iran accused the United States on
Thursday of "childish behaviour" driven by fear after Washington
imposed sanctions on its foreign minister, fanning tensions
between two foes at loggerheads over Gulf shipping and Iran's
nuclear programme.
Fears of a Middle East war with global repercussions have
risen since the United States ditched world powers' 2015 nuclear
deal with Iran last year and revived sanctions on Tehran.
The Islamic Republic has retaliated by resuming uranium
enrichment seen in the West seen as a potential conduit to
developing atomic bombs. Iran denies having any such objective.
After several attacks in May and June on oil tankers -
blamed by Washington on Tehran, which denied responsibility -
U.S. President Donald Trump has been trying to forge a military
coalition to secure Gulf waters, though European allies have
been loath to join for fear of provoking open conflict.
European parties to the nuclear pact have called for
diplomacy to defuse the crisis, but Tehran and Washington have
taken hard lines and on Wednesday the Trump administration
slapped sanctions on Iran's foreign minister - a likely further
blow to any chances for troubleshooting dialogue.
"They (Americans) are resorting to childish behaviour...
They were claiming every day 'We want to talk, with no
preconditions'...and then they sanction (our) foreign minister,"
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on state television.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a pivotal player in
the nuclear deal who was educated and lived for years in the
United States, dismissed the U.S. action and said it would not
affect him as he had no property or other interests in America.
U.S. AFRAID OF ZARIF'S WORDS, IRAN SAYS
"A country which believes it's powerful and a world
superpower is afraid of our foreign minister's interviews,"
Rouhani said, alluding to numerous interviews that Zarif - a
fluent English speaker - gave to American media when he visited
New York for a United Nations conference in July.
"When Dr Zarif gives an interview in New York, ... they
(Americans) say Iran's foreign minister is misleading our public
opinion," Rouhani said. "What happened to your claims of
liberty, freedom of expression and democracy?"
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Zarif was being
sanctioned because he "implements the reckless agenda of Iran's
Supreme Leader...(We are) sending a clear message to the Iranian
regime that its recent behaviour is completely unacceptable".
In a tweet earlier on Thursday, Zarif said peace and
dialogue were an "existential threat" to hawkish politicians
allied with U.S. President Donald Trump who take a hardline
stance against the Islamic Republic.
Zarif has in the past said that a so-called “B-team”
including Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, an
ardent Iran hawk, and conservative Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu could goad Trump into a war with Tehran.
In repudiating the nuclear deal reached by predecessor
Barack Obama, Trump said he wanted to secure a wider accord that
not only limited Iran's nuclear activity but also curbed its
ballistic missile programme and reined in its support for
powerful proxies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
Trump intensified sanctions in May to try to strangle Iran's
oil exports, the lynchpin of its economy.
FEARS FOR GULF OIL SHIPPING
The security of shipping in the Gulf, through which about a
fifth of the world's oil passes, has shot up the international
agenda since May when Washington accused Iran of being behind
explosions that holed six tankers over several weeks.
In July, Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait
of Hormuz, the Gulf's outlet to the open seas, in apparent
retaliation for Britain's seizure of an Iranian ship accused of
violating European sanctions by taking oil to Syria.
Britain on Thursday ruled out a swap of the two tankers. "We
are not going to barter: if people or nations have detained
UK-flagged illegally then the rule of law and rule of
international law must be upheld," Foreign Secretary Dominic
Raab said.
In a sign of increasing jitters over security in the Gulf,
Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it was not taking
any British-flagged tankers through the Strait of Hormuz for the
time being.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin said on Tuesday the United States
had asked Germany to join France and Britain in a mission to
protect shipping transiting the strait and "combat Iranian
aggression". Germany rebuffed the request.
"To join the American position, which in our view is part of
a strategy of maximum pressure, has never been the right path
for us and will not be in the future," Foreign Minister Heiko
Maas told Germany's ZDF television.
On Thursday, Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador to Germany,
urged Berlin to take on a global responsibility to match its
economic might. "Germany is the biggest economic power in
Europe. This success brings global responsibilities," he said.
The foreign ministry of Russia, another party to the 2015
deal, said it had the impression the United States was seeking a
pretext for conflict in the Gulf, RIA news agency reported.