TEHRAN: The world community should oppose the US’ use of sanctions to impose its will as a “bully,” or expect to face sanctions itself, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday.
Separately, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards rejected as a “bluff” any possibility of a military conflict with the US.
US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose sanctions on anyone violating an arms embargo against Iran, which is set to expire in October/
“The Americans as a rule act as a bully and impose sanction…The world community should decide how to act towards bullying,” Zarif told Iranian state television.
Nord Stream project
“As they (other countries) will face the same thing tomorrow when America takes the same action towards the Nord Stream project, as well as other projects because a bully will continue to act as a bully if he is allowed to do it once,” Zarif said.
The US and many European countries oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which they say will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.
“No power, including the US, has the conditions to impose a new war on the Iranian nation, so people should not worry about these exaggerated bluffs by the US president,” said Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami, quoted by semi-official news agency ISNA.
Salami was apparently reacting to a tweet by Trump this week in which he said any Iranian attack against the US would be met by a response “1,000 times greater in magnitude”.