Zarif Reacts to Kerry’s Senate Hearing Remarks
KABUL: (Middle East Press) Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohmmad Javad Zarif has responded to recent remarks by US Secretary of States John Kerry, calling them “incomplete references to some issues raised at nuclear negotiations.”
In response to some of Kerry’s claims at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday over the conclusion of the nuclear talks with Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif underscored the Iranian nation’s resistance against various kinds of international pressure in a bid to dissuade them from pursuing a peaceful nuclear program and its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), adding such resistance finally forced the US to leave confrontation for negotiation.
The Iranian diplomat also criticized Kerry’s remarks over ‘US capability to use military force’ against Iran, dismissing it as a ‘hollow threat.’
“This kind of talks belongs to the last century and is opposed to the jus cogens of the international law today,” said Zarif while advising the US to put aside the language of threat and sanctions against the people of Iran ‘once and for all.’
Zarif further maintained that he had repeatedly told Kerry during the negotiations that Iranians would never show strong reaction to US policies without a good reason.
He noted that the US hostile moves against Iran over the past 60 years including “the coup against a democratic government and its support for the coup government in 1953, all-out support for the Pahlavi regime, and backing Saddam Hussein regime in its countless crimes against the people of Iraq and Iran, are the reasons for the Iranians’ anger at Washington.
Zarif further stated that contrary to Kerry’s remarks, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) clearly specified that the contents of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 are different from those of the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the 5+1 on July 14.
“Some issues Mr. Kerry raised over Iran’s support for its regional allies with battling extremism and the ISIL Takfiri terrorists as its forefront have no relation to the agreement,” Zarif said, adding that Tehran would do everything in its capacity to counter terrorism and extremism in the region.
The Iranian Foreign Minister also stressed that US efforts to create divisions among Iranian authorities and people are “doomed to failure,” advising the Americans to avoid repeating their past mistakes regarding such forged categorizations.
US Secretary of States John Kerry faced tough questioning by a largely skeptical panel of senators at a Senate committee hearing over Iran nuclear deal on Thursday. The US Senate is most likely to try out new lines of attack throughout the agreement’s 60-day Congressional review period.
