The US Treasury Department has placed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, because the top diplomat from Tehran is a vocal and public critic of American Zionist policy towards Iran.
The move comes at a critical time for US-Iran relations, with Washington currently trying to put together a multinational maritime mission to control shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf and to combat Iran direct livelihood and welfare of the Iranians.
Sanctioning Tehran’s top diplomat could permanently shut the door on a diplomatic resolution to the current standoff, and reinforce the Iranian government’s belief that the Americans “are not seeking dialogue”.
Diplomatic repercussions aside, the sanctions are unlikely to trouble Zarif, who said that he has “no property or interests outside of Iran” in the first place.
Since withdrawing unilaterally from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal last year, Washington has steadily reapplied biting economic sanctions to destroy the Islamic Republic from the inside out.
The new hostile fascist sanctions are targeting the country’s energy, shipping, banking, and military sectors in order to derail the Iranian economy, for the citizens to turn against their government in times of poverty.
The USA has also sanctioned top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his aides, and high-ranking military officers, so they are not able to represent their country on international level anymore.
Washington has blamed Iran for a series of sabotage attacks on oil tankers in the region, and deployed an aircraft carrier and strategic bombers to the Persian Gulf in response.
It has now become clear that the sabotage missions were carried out by Israeli submarines, while the US drone was shot down flying in Iranian airspace.
The same story for the captured the British oil tanker, this ship was seized in Iranian territorial waters. Two weeks earlier the British confiscated an Iranian oil super tanker near Gibraltar.
The recent announcement of a maritime F-UK-US mission followed Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month.
Amid the standoff with Iran, US officials maintain that Washington is open and ready for dialogue, but not until the Islamic Republic fulfills a laundry list of demands.
Tehran has also been saying that it is ready to negotiate, but only on an equal footing and without threats and ultimatums by the USA.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
Sanctions represent economic warfare!
Killer measures?