Asked whether it would be worth speaking to Trump amid the intensifying conflict, Zarif argued that the president “doesn’t need speaking” and “has to realize that he has been fed misinformation.”
“He needs to wake up and apologize,” Zarif said. “He has to apologize. He has to change course.”
The remarks from Tehran’s chief diplomat in a series of media appearances came after Trump tweeted Saturday that his administration had homed in on 52 sites in Iran, including some “important to … the Iranian culture,” in case of retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
The president tweeted again Sunday that U.S. forces would “quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner,” should Iran attack American interests.
But Zarif asserted Tuesday that Trump’s threats “will not frighten us,” and accused him of suggesting actions that would constitute war crimes.
“He’s showing to the international community that he has no respect for international law — that he is prepared to commit war crimes because attacking cultural sites is a war crime. Disproportionate response is a war crime,” Zarif said. “But he doesn’t care, it seems, about international law.”
Speaking with reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump defended his controversial proposal to target Iranian sites of cultural significance, which has been rebuked by several congressional Democrats.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” Trump said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper broke with the president Monday over the potential military maneuver, insisting during a news conference at the Pentagon that the U.S. would “follow the laws of armed conflict.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also told reporters at a State Department news conference Tuesday that any retaliatory measures against Iran “will be consistent with the international rule of law, and the American people can rest assured that that’s the case.”
In a separate interview Tuesday with NPR, Zarif said the U.S. “will pay” for Soleimani’s killing, characterizing the airstrike that resulted in his death as a “cowardly armed attack” and an act of “both terrorism and war.”
“[We] will respond according to our own timing and choice,” he said.
Zarif also reported that the Trump administration had failed to grant him a visa to attend a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.
Pompeo called U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to say that “they didn’t have enough time to review my request,” Zarif told “CBS This Morning” Tuesday, recounting his conversation with Guterres.
“That’s not unexpected,” Zarif said. “But my question is, what are they afraid of?”
National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Tuesday defended the administration’s move to block Zarif from entering the country later this week, and said the foreign minister “spreads propaganda” when he visits New York.
“I don’t think Secretary Pompeo thought that this was the right time for Mr. Zarif to come to the United States,” he told “Fox & Friends.”
“I think he’ll be fine missing that meeting,” O’Brien said. “He can certainly call in to the meeting or he can participate by video teleconference, and his voice will be heard if he wants to be heard.”
Pompeo declined to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the status of Zarif’s visa during his news conference.
“We don’t comment on visa matters — those traveling here to the United States on visas — so I can’t add much more to this issue of Foreign Minister Zarif’s travel to the United States,” Pompeo said, later describing his Iranian counterpart as a “propagandist of the first order.”
“I’ll say only this,” Pompeo added. “We will always comply with our obligations under the U.N. requirements and the Headquarters Agreement, and we will do so in this particular instance and, more broadly, every day.”
Source: politico.com
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