Washington must admit failure of sanction policy, Iran says

TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday that Washington must admit failure of its sanction policy against Iran.

His comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has ordered sanctions on Iran’s central bank at “the highest level.”

Mousavi said, “The announced sanctions are not something new and are the previous sanctions imposed in a different way. The United States must admit that its policy of sanction against Iran has failed.”

He described the U.S. foreign policy as “confused” and “frustrated” which is just based on “unilateralism, bullying and economic terrorism” and lacks “wise and dynamic initiatives” to settle issues peacefully.

“I hope the United States’ officials will understand that they are not the only economic superpower anymore and that there are many countries which are interested in enjoying Iran’s market and economic opportunities.

Mousavi urged the international community to devise a new economic and business system to reduce effects of the U.S. hostile actions.

According to CNBC, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the Oval that the central bank was Tehran’s last source of funds.

“This is very big,” Mnuchin said. “We’ve now cut off all source of funds to Iran.”

Trump, who had initially claimed the sanctions applied to Iran’s “national bank,” said the new penalties on Iran mark the “highest sanctions ever imposed on a country.”

The president’s remarks at the White House came two days after he announced via Twitter that he had instructed Mnuchin “to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!”

“Desperate approach”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the recent move showed Washington’s “desperate approach” toward the Islamic Republic.

“The Americans have imposed any sanctions they could on the Islamic Republic. What they are doing now is sanctioning an entity which has been sanctioned before under a different pretext,” Zarif told reporters in New York, according to Press TV.

Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018 and returned the previous sanctions and imposed new ones in line with what he refers to as a “maximum pressure”.

NA/PA