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Iran mocks Washington's ‘desperate’ sanctions

IRANIAN Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif mocked Washington’s “largest-ever” sanctions package today, describing it as a “desperate” psychological ploy.

“The US designated a bank that was closed six years ago and a ship that sank in a widely televised saga,” he tweeted, with the hashtage #USisIsolated.

President Donald Trump’s renewed sanctions against Tehran, which he believed would play well with voters as they took part in the US midterm polls, included mothballed Boeing 747s, the Tat Bank that closed in 2012 and the Sanchi oil tanker that exploded and sank off China months ago.

However, they also targeted for the first time Iran’s state airline and its atomic energy commission.

The US Treasury Department imposed penalties on more than 700 Iranian and Iranian-linked individuals, entities, aircraft and ships in the new sanctions, among them 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries and more than 200 people and ships.

Iranian Senior Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri scoffed that the US politicians “think their list is more effective if it is longer.”

Turkey will not observe the sanctions, President Tayyip Erdogan said today, describing Washington’s move as an attempt to unbalance the world.

His Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is in Tokyo for talks with Japanese leaders, said Ankara opposed sanctions because they were ineffective.

“As a principle, Turkey is against sanctions and we don’t believe that any result can be achieved through sanctions.

“Cornering is not wise, isolating Iran is dangerous and punishing the Iranian people is not fair.”

About a third of Turkey’s natural gas comes from Iran and Mr Cavusoglu urged Washington to find other reasonable solutions.

“I think, instead of sanctions, meaningful dialogue and engagement is much more useful and this is our principle.”

Despite Mr Cavusoglu’s advice to his hosts, Japan joined South Korea and Taiwan in thanking the White House for offering them and a handful of other countries a “waiver” from the sanctions regime.

The US sanctions, which have no validity in international law, were sparked by President Trump’s decision to withdraw unilaterally from the international agreement with Iran on the restriction of its nuclear programme to peaceful purposes.

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