He made the remarks in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday.
Touching upon Trump’s tweet in which he had described Rouhani as a ‘lovely man’, CNN journalists asked about the prospects of Trump-Rouhani summit in the future. Zarif pointed to the US’ violations of agreements, saying “why waste our time?” Iran has shown and proven that it is open to talks but this US government is not reliable.
Iran has already had a 150-page agreement with the United States and other countries, he said adding if Trump thinks he can sign an agreement and then pull out of that so “why waste our time?”. The point is that of reliability which this current US government doesn’t enjoy, he highlighted.
Iranian Foreign Minister said that Donald Trump succeeded in isolating the United States as was seen in the United Nations Security Council. Pointing to the opposition of UNSC members in the face of the US for JCPOA in recent meeting, Zarif said that this is the first time that a country asks other member states to violate a UNSC resolution.
Iran has announced that it should enjoy the economic interests put forward by JCPOA and European countries along with Russia and China have assured Iran that they would find a solution to safeguard Tehran’s economic interest.
Europe and the international community are serious in preventing the destruction of a diplomatic achievements by Trump, he said, adding that Europe has proposed a mechanism, however, its effectiveness should be tested.
Elsewhere in his remarks, refuting US’ claims of Iran’s meddlesome actions in the Middle East, Zarif said that “we are not 6,000 miles away from our country, we are in the region.” Iran has fought against ISIL, Al-Qaeda, and the US has acknowledged that, he said, adding that Trump himself had said that Washington was supporting extremism in Syria. The US is now targeting civilians, and even children in Yemen who were in the school bus were hit by US-made missiles, he added.
He said that Iran’s consulate general building was destroyed in Basra but Iran quickly resumed diplomatic mission in a new place. It is better for both the national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to look at their policies towards other nations instead of uttering threats.
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