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 by Staff Writers Munich, Germany (AFP) Feb 17, 2019
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that Israel was "looking for war", in an apparent reference to recent strikes against Iranian targets in Syria. "Certainly some people are looking for war," Zarif said during a question and answer session at the Munich Security Conference, adding "Israel" when pressed to say who. Israel carried out a series of air strikes last month against what it said were facilities belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force in Syria. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria in the past few years against Iranian and Hezbollah targets. Iran is a major supporter of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war. "We are in Syria on the invitation of the Syrian government for the sole purpose of fighting terrorism," Zarif said.
Iran takes aim at 'hateful' Pence comments Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Munich Security Conference that Pence's demands for the EU to follow the US in abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal amounted to asking Europe to undermine its own security. And Zarif piled fresh pressure on the EU, telling Brussels that a trade mechanism to bypass US sanctions on Iran was inadequate and it needed to do more if it wanted to save the accord. US President Donald Trump tore up the nuclear deal last year, branding it a failure, and Washington has slapped swingeing sanctions back on Tehran. Pence used a diplomatic tour of Europe this week to demand repeatedly that EU countries stop trying to preserve the deal, which curbed Tehran's nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief. Zarif slammed the vice president, saying he had "arrogantly demanded that Europe must join the US in undermining its own security and breaking its obligations" to the treaty under international law. "His hateful accusations against Iran including his ignorant allegations of anti-semitism (...) are both ridiculous but at the same time very very dangerous," Zarif said. Away from the fiery rhetoric, Zarif's criticism of INSTEX -- the payment mechanism created by European countries to try to continue trade with Iran -- will cause concern in Brussels. The creation of INSTEX by Britain, France and Germany -- the so-called E3 European signatories to the nuclear deal -- was a complex, drawn-out process that has infuriated the Trump administration, exacerbating transatlantic tensions. But while Zarif welcomed the EU's political support, he said it was not enough, and demanded Europe "walk the walk". "INSTEX falls short of the commitments by the E3 to save the nuclear deal," he said. "Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against the dangerous tide of US unilateralism." He warned that the future of the nuclear deal was "on the brink", saying that while polls showed 51 percent of Iranians still supported staying in, there were many who thought Tehran had got a bad deal.
EU, Germany reject US call to leave Iran nuclear deal Munich, Germany (AFP) Feb 15, 2019 Germany and the EU on Friday rejected an appeal by US Vice President Mike Pence for Europeans to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and isolate Tehran. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas defended the 2015 agreement under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said the bloc was determined to preserve the "full implementation" of the deal, saying it was vital to European security. "Together with the Brits, Fr ... read more
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