Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Tuesday described the U.S. airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani as an act of “state terrorism,” CNN reports.
Zarif told the network that President Donald Trump’s pulling the U.S. out of the nuclear agreement with Iran and taking an aggressive stance with the country “destroyed stability” in the region. He noted that the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, put strict limitations on Iran’s nuclear program, and the U.S. in exchange lessened economic sanctions on the country. Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.
"What is important for the Trump regime to realize is that everything in this region was improving following the JCPOA," Zarif said.
"We saw normal elections in Iraq, normal elections in Lebanon ... we had the reduction of tensions in Syria ... what happened? The United States started a maximum pressure campaign, terrorizing the Iranian people, making it difficult for Iranians to even get food and medicine."
He added that Trump’s recent threats to destroy important Iranian cultural sites show that he "has no respect for international law and is prepared to commit war crimes -- attacking cultural sites is a war crime."
"This is an act of aggression against Iran and amounts to an armed attack against Iran, and we will respond. But we will respond proportionally not disproportionally," Zarif said. "We will respond lawfully, we are not lawless people like President Trump."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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