US cannot seek a new treaty with Iran when it violated the last one - Iranian FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rubbished US calls for a new treaty with Tehran, and blasted the US for violating its obligations by withdrawing from the Iran deal. He said the US “only mocks calls for peace.”

“US calls JCPOA ‘a personal agreement between two governments’, claiming it ‘seeks a treaty’. Wrong. It’s an int'l accord enshrined in a UN SC res. Plus, US has violated its treaty obligations too & faces 2 suits at ICJ. Apparently, US only mocks calls for peace. #HaveYouNoShame,” Zarif tweeted on Thursday.

Zarif’s tweet was accompanied by a video showing a protester being removed from a conference on Wednesday. At the conference, US special envoy for Iran Brian Hook said that he hopes the US can sign a new deal with Iran to limit the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“The new deal that we hope to be able to sign with Iran, and it will not be a personal agreement between two governments like the last one: we seek a treaty,” he said, ahead of a UN Security Council meeting in New York next week, chaired by President Donald Trump.

READ MORE: Iran Deal 2.0? US seeks to force Tehran into new ‘treaty’ with threats of ‘stronger measures’

Hook said on Wednesday that Iranian leaders did not seem interested in talking with the US. Zarif’s words on Thursday seem to have proven him right.

President Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran deal, in May. The accord, signed by the US, Iran, China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany, guaranteed Iran some sanctions relief in exchange for halting its nuclear program.

Since the withdrawal, Washington reapplied economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic last month, with a fresh round set to be applied in November. The sanctions, described by Trump as “the most biting sanctions ever imposed,” target oil-rich Iran’s vital energy sector.

In addition, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo announced the creation of the Iran Action Group, an effort to support opposition groups in Iran. National Security Advisor John Bolton denied that the US is seeking regime change, but promised that the US would do “other things” to force “massive change in the regime’s behavior.”

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Since the reimposition of sanctions, the Iranian government has been reluctant to trust any US overtures to peace. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last month that Iran will not negotiate with Washington while being sanctioned at the same time, describing such tactics as “psychological warfare [against] the Iranian nation,” adding that “Trump’s call for direct talks is only for domestic consumption in America ... and to create chaos in Iran.”

With sanctions putting the squeeze on Iran’s economy, Tehran filed a case with the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands, last month. The Iranian government claims that the sanctions are in violation of a treaty signed between Iran and the US in 1955, called the Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations.

Pompeo described Iran’s move as “an attempt to interfere with the sovereign rights of the US.”

“The proceedings instituted by Iran are a misuse of the Court,” he added.

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