Iran says no to talks with US

Rejection comes amid extra military forces sent to region

WASHINGTON: Amid rising tensions in the Gulf, Iran rejected negotiations with the US and said it was showing “maximum restraint” after Washington sent extra military forces to the region against what it claimed was an imminent threat from Teheran.

US officials meanwhile said the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf, one of the world’s most strategic waterways, was in reaction to photographs showing that Iran had loaded missiles onto small traditional boats.

In Tokyo for talks with Japanese officials, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the US escalation “unacceptable”.

There was “no possibility” of negotiations with the United States, he told reporters. “I don’t know why President Trump is confident.”

“We exercise maximum restraint,” he said, despite the Trump administration’s unilateral move last year to withdraw from the international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme.

On Wednesday, Trump predicted Iran would “soon” want to negotiate, even as the State Department ordered the evacuation of most personnel from the US embassy and consulate in Iraq, fearing an attack by Iranian-directed Syiah militias.

“I’m sure that Iran will want to talk soon,” the president tweeted.

The White House and Pentagon remained under pressure to demonstrate the reason for the huge buildup in forces and heightened rhetoric of the past 11 days.

Two major pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq rejected allegations that they were plotting an attack on US diplomatic installations in the country.

Nasr al-Shomari, a military commander for the Iran-backed Harakat al-Nujaba, said the claim was “a pretext” by Washington to create “an uproar” in Iraq.

US coalition partners in Iraq had suggested earlier this week that the threat level there had not risen significantly, and members of Congress demanded to see the information behind the Trump administration’s warlike rhetoric.

“I think they should tell us what is going on,” senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said. — AFP