Minister criticizes Trump for focus on Iran at UN
UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s foreign minister has sharply criticized President Donald Trump for “abusing” the US presidency of the Security Council this month by holding a meeting on Iran’s international activities during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in late September.
Mohammad Javad Zarif responded in a tweet to US Ambassador Nikki Haley’s announcement on Tuesday that Trump will chair a meeting to address “violations of international law and general instability Iran sows throughout the entire Middle East region”.
She accused Iran of supporting terrorism and destabilizing activities in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.
In his response on Wednesday, Zarif tweeted: “He plans to abuse presidency of SC (Security Council) to divert a session ... to blame Iran for horrors US & clients have unleashed across M.E. (Middle East).”
He also accused Trump of violating a 2015 UN Security Council resolution that endorsed the Iran nuclear deal. The president withdrew the United States from the nuclear accord between Iran and six major powers in May.
Zarif said “@realDonaldTrump is violating it & bullying others to do same”.
Under Security Council rules, Iran can speak at the Sept 26 meeting that Trump will chair, but Zarif and Iran’s UN Mission did not indicate whether it would participate. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to attend the General Assembly’s ministerial session, along with Zarif.
The mission said in a press release that despite the fact that Iran is in compliance with all its nuclear obligations under the 2015 deal according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, “the US not only unilaterally and unlawfully withdrew from the accord, but also now openly invites all UN member states to either violate or ignore resolution 2231 or face punishment”.
The mission called Israel’s occupation of Palestine “the main cause of all conflicts in the Middle East” and accused the US, Israel’s most important supporter, of rendering the Security Council “ineffective in discharging its duty to end the illegal occupation”. Iran called the Sept 26 council meeting “a further attempt by the US to divert attention away from Israeli brutalities and to remove the issue from the council agenda; however, such actions are doomed to fail”.
Answering US criticism of Iran in the region, the Iranian mission called the US “a menace to Middle Eastern security with its destabilizing, unilateralist policies and military interventions based on false claims”.
It pointed to the US invasion of Iraq, its presence in Afghanistan, “the illegal occupation” of nearly onethird of Syria, and its part in the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has been accused of killing civilians.
Trump, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that it was possible he could meet with Rouhani at the UN.
“Whether they want to talk or not, that’s up to them, not up to me,” Trump said. “I will always be available ... we’ll see what happens.”