Mohammad Javad Zarif - Page 2

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gave an interview to Germany’s Der Spiegel on Saturday in which he said Iran would be willing to negotiate with the United States if the U.S. unconditionally drops its economic sanctions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani bragged on Thursday that Iran is now enriching more uranium than it was before President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Protests against the Iranian regime continued for a fourth day on Tuesday, with student rallies held at four universities in Tehran.

Establishment media broadcast unconfirmed falsehoods, offered praise for the Iranian authoritarian regime, and otherwise spent much of Tuesday night adding to the confusion surrounding Iranian airstrikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.

Iran cried out for “harsh retaliation” and revenge on Friday after a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport killed Tehran’s top general, with one adviser to Iran’s supreme leader threatening U.S. troops in the Middle East with immediate consequences, saying “this is the time to clear the region from these insidious beasts.”

Iran indicated Monday it wants to swap more prisoners with the United States following the release of Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani, traded for Chinese-American scholar Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton.

Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday it has sent the United States a list of names it is demanding in a proposed prisoner swap, opening a potential new channel with Washington amid recent growing tensions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday threatened “all-out war” to the “last American soldier” if the United States retaliates for last weekend’s attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities by Iran and/or its proxies in Yemen, the Houthis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday exposed a secret facility in central Iran that he said was used for nuclear weapons research until the Iranians realized Israel knew of its existence. At that point, according to Netanyahu, the site was hastily “wiped out” and the evidence of nuclear research was “destroyed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday unveiled what he claims was a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons facility and accused Tehran of destroying the site in an effort to deny its existence.

The U.S. Treasury is nothing more than a “jail warden”, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lamented Thursday, a day after Washington imposed fresh sanctions designed to end the illicit smuggling of oil by Iran shipping interests.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made a surprise appearance at the G7 summit in France on Sunday, a bit of collusion between the French and Iranian governments that appeared to be French President Emmanuel Macron’s gambit to jump-start diplomacy between Washington and Tehran.

The U.S. State Department on Monday warned Greece not to allow the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 to dock because the ship is carrying “illicit oil to fuel the Iranian regime’s and Syrian regime’s campaigns of terror and oppression.” Greek officials insisted they have not received a request from the tanker for docking, even though its destination appears to be the Greek port of Kalamata.

Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) notorious Quds Force, said on Saturday that U.S. sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were a result of American desperation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday described American sanctions against him as a “diplomatic failure” by the United States, which he claimed is “all alone in the world today” and unable to form effective international coalitions.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on the grounds that Zarif acted on behalf of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, himself a sanctioned individual, and coordinated activities with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif shows they are “afraid” of his eloquence and powers of persuasion, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during an interview on Thursday that he would “happily” visit Iran for negotiations and would love an opportunity to address the Iranian people directly.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Latin America this week to meet with left-wing leaders in Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, seeking to bolster diplomatic relations amid increasing isolation from the international community.

“The U.S. hostile measures against Iran are economic terrorism and Tehran will in no way hold talks with terrorists,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared from Venezuela on Sunday.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi denied on Friday any military drone was lost recently and suggested the U.S. instead could have downed its own “by mistake.”

Iran’s manic swings between blaming U.S. sanctions for its economic woes and demanding immediate rescue from the Europeans, and dismissing those sanctions as an irrelevant trifle, continued on Wednesday as Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani insisted President Donald Trump has completely failed to intimidate Tehran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei vowed on Tuesday that Iran will continue violating the nuclear deal until European powers meet Tehran’s demands.

The Western nuclear agreement with Iran “isn’t dead yet,” British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Monday, stressing he remains “totally committed” to deescalating tensions in the Persian Gulf. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s foreign minister has suggested for the first time that the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program could be up for negotiations with the U.S., a possible opening for talks as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington over the collapsing nuclear deal.

The U.S. State Department has reportedly granted a visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif so he can attend a meeting this week at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Iran announced a major violation of the nuclear deal on Monday by surpassing its 3.67 percent enrichment limit for uranium and threatened to proceed to the dangerous 20 percent level, which would put Tehran only a small step away from producing weapons-grade nuclear material. 

Iranian officials on Tuesday claimed that exceeding the limits on stockpiled uranium set by the 2015 nuclear deal somehow preserves the spirit of the deal and scoffed at U.S. accusations they have been violating it all along.

Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday confirmed a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that Iran has violated the 300 kilogram limit on stockpiling enriched uranium established by the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif this week demanded that the United States pull its troops out of the Persian Gulf region, arguing that such a move is “fully in line” with the interest of America and the world.

Iran’s President Rouhani sneered at U.S. President Trump and his White House team on Tuesday, saying they are “afflicted by mental retardation.”

A new round of U.S. economic sanctions targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials meant a “permanent closure” of diplomacy now exists between Tehran and Washington, the Islamic Republic warned Tuesday.

A spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said on Thursday the United States has no right to retaliate for Iran’s attack on an unmanned drone, repeating Iran’s claim the drone was shot down over its territory instead of international airspace.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed solidarity with Iran on Friday, even as the U.S. Navy revealed evidence the Iranians were behind the terrorist attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

The Japanese government formally announced on Tuesday that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo will depart for Tehran on Wednesday to meet with President Hassan Rouhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the U.S. on Monday night of committing “economic terrorism” against Tehran, calling on Europe to join it in a fight against Washington’s policies in the Middle East.