US has an addiction to sanctions: Iran

TEHRAN: The United States has an "addiction to sanctions", Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said in an interview with CNN.

"I believe there is a disease in the United States and that is the addiction to sanctions," Zarif told the US broadcaster on Sunday. "Even during the Obama administration the United States put more emphasis on keeping the sanctions it had not lifted rather than implementing its obligation on the sanctions it lifted."

It was Zarif’s first interview with Western media since US President Donald Trump walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May, leading Washington to reimpose sanctions earlier this month. "We felt that the United States had learned that at least as far as Iran is concerned, sanctions do produce economic hardship but do not produce the political outcomes that they intended them to produce," he said. "I thought that the Americans had learned that lesson. Unfortunately I was wrong," he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser met in occupied-al-Quds on Monday and called on European nations to do more to pressure Iran.

John Bolton arrived in Israel on Sunday for three days of talks expected to focus mainly on Iran and its presence in Syria. Netanyahu strongly urged Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal between Israel’s main enemy Iran and world powers, and the US president did so in May, resulting in the reimposition of sanctions.

Israel and the United States have been closely aligned on their approach to Iran since Trump took office. "I frankly believe that all countries who care about peace and security in the Middle East should follow America’s lead and ratchet up the pressure on Iran," Netanyahu told journalists.

"Because the greater the pressure on Iran, the greater the chance that the regime will roll back its aggression. And everybody should join this effort." The comments were a veiled reference to European countries, which are seeking to save the nuclear deal and have vowed to keep providing Iran with the economic benefits it received from the accord.

They argue that the nuclear deal is working as intended in keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons for now. Bolton said "it’s a question of the highest importance for the United States that Iran never get a deliverable nuclear weapons capability."

"It’s why President Trump withdrew from the wretched Iran nuclear deal," he said, speaking alongside Netanyahu. "It’s why we’ve worked with our friends in Europe to convince them of the need to take stronger steps against the Iranian nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme." The United States and Israel argue the deal was too limited in scope and timeframe while also allowing Iran to finance militant activities in the region due to the lifting of sanctions.