US sanctions will have adverse effect on its own economy

The Americans are addicted to sanctions. They have no effects and little by little the world will start to ridicule Washington for that, Zarif told reporters about US new sanctions on  Iranian Space Agency, after his meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart AK Abdul Momen.

Zarif said the US has sanctioned every state and government, and the only country the US has not sanctioned is the US.

Regarding the recent visit of his deputy Abbas Araghchi's to France, he said that negotiations were because the Europeans were not able to keep committed to their own commitments stipulated in the deal. However, Iran has economic ties with Russia and China which were a bit affected by "the US illegal sanctions" but will continue. 

Commenting on the two phases of reducing commitments, he said that as repeatedly stated Iran takes such actions in the framework of Article 36 of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

He said Iran is taking compensatory measures against European Union as they ignore observing their commitments, adding that Iran has announced that in the period of scaling down commitments, it will continue negotiations.

The measures are taken for protecting the deal in order to maintain its balance, Zarif said.

Iran is ready to reverse its measures and return to full compliance with the deal if the other party to stay on the right track, he added.

Telephone conversations between President Rouhani and French President Emanuel Macron, during Biarritz (G7 meeting), and his deputy's visits to Paris were all for hearing how Europe is going to do their commitments and for the Iranian banking and oil experts to tell them what should be done.

Regarding Macron's remarks as to get permission from the US for launching a line of credit, he said that the Europe needs to get a permission from the US for that is quite understandable but it’s a shame.

He said that if the US stops the sanctions and continued violation of the deal, they can return to the negotiations as on going developments in the region and other issues are irrelevant to the JCPOA. 

Regarding his meeting with the Bangladeshi prime minister and foreign minister, he said that they have talked about the Islamic world issues and mainly on broadening cooperation between Islamic countries.

Zarif added that the people of Bangladesh know many of poems of the Iranian poets, like Hafez, Saadi, and Ferdowsi by heart, and that the friendship between the two countries dates back to centuries ago, so no one should be able to hurt it.

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