Iran Sanctions Show Confused US Foreign Policy: Rafsanjani
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of Iran’s Expediency Council (EC) said fresh US sanctions against Iran are seen as a sign of confusion in Washington's foreign policy.
“The world’s intellectuals and the moderate members of the European Union are expected to remind the US of the adverse consequences of these policies,” Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a meeting with Finland’s Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja in Tehran on Monday.
While the nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) have opened a “new page” in Iran-West relations, the US-imposed sanctions ahead of a new round of nuclear talks would upset Tehran’s posture, Rafsanjani noted.
On Friday, the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on more than 25 Iranian individuals and companies, including shipping firms, oil companies, airlines and six Iranian banks.
The sanctions came ahead of the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (alternatively known as P5+1 or E3+3), which are scheduled to meet in New York this month with the aim of reaching a final agreement over Tehran’s nuclear energy program and the removal of unjustified sanctions against Iran.
For his part, Tuomioja expressed the confidence that settlement of the standoff on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will usher in “widespread upheavals in Iran’s relations with the European countries, particularly Finland.”
