Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accused the US of “childish behaviour” and acting out of fear after Washington imposed sanctions on Iran’s foreign minister amid rising tensions between the two countries.
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, blocking any property or interests he has in the United States. But Zarif said he had none.
“They (Americans) are resorting to childish behaviour… They were claiming every day ‘We want to talk, with no preconditions’ … and then they sanction the foreign minister,” Rouhani said in remarks carried live on state television on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers last year and ramped up sanctions to put pressure on Iran’s economy.
In recent months bilateral relations have worsened significantly after attacks on tankers in the Gulf that the United States blames on Iran, a charge denied by Tehran, and Iran’s downing of a US drone.
“A country which believes it’s powerful and a world superpower is afraid of our foreign minister’s interviews,” Rouhani said in an apparent reference to numerous interviews Zarif gave to US media when he visited New York for a United Nations meeting in July.
Read the article in The West Australian (AAP).