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Zarif: US sanctions on Iran’s space program ‘ineffective’

SHAFAQNA-Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back at the US government over US’s recent sanctions on the country’s space program, saying such sanctions have no effect in practice.

Zarif made the remarks after a meeting with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen in Dhaka on Wednesday.

“The Americans are addicted to sanctions,” Zarif, who is on an official visit to Bangladesh, said on Wednesday.

Such sanctions, he added, “have no effect, and the world will gradually begin to mock the United States, too.” Washington’s “use of sanctions as economic leverage has become so extreme that it will gradually pose a threat to the US economic power,” he added.

The Trump administration announced the first-ever sanctions against the Iranian Space Agency.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a Tuesday statement that the sanctions would target both the space agency and two of its research institutions.

“The United States will not allow Iran to use its space launch program as cover to advance its ballistic missile programs. Iran’s Aug. 29 attempt to launch a space launch vehicle underscores the urgency of the threat,” Pompeo, the former CIA chief, said.

Iran has in recent years made great headways in the space technology thanks to the efforts made by its local scientists.

The country successfully launched its first indigenous data-processing satellite, Omid (Hope), into orbit in February 2009.

In February 2017, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani unveiled 3 new achievements in the space industry.

In July 2017, Iran inaugurated the Imam Khomeini National Space Center with the successful test-launch of a homegrown satellite carrier dubbed Simorgh.

The center, home to Iran’s first fixed launch platform, administrates the development, launch, and navigation of Iranian satellite carriers, Tasnim News reported.

Elsewhere in his comments, Zarif commented on Europe’s France-led efforts to save a 2015 nuclear deal, whose fate has been hanging in the balance since America’s exit from it in May 2018.

He criticized as “regrettable” Europe’s call for the US’s approval of the European measures to save the nuclear agreement.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said Washington’s approval was cruscial for a proposed $15 billion credit lines for Iranian oil sales.

The idea is “to exchange a credit line guaranteed by oil in return for, one, a return to the JCPOA … and two, security in the [Persian] Gulf and the opening of negotiations on regional security and a post-2025 (nuclear program). All this (pre)supposes that [US] President [Donald] Trump issues waivers,” Le Drian said on Tuesday, using an acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official name of the 2015 nuclear accord, press TV reported.

Read more from shafaqna:

Zarif reviews issues of mutual interests with Bangladeshi officials

 

Iran-Russia cooperation in interest of region, world: Zarif

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