Lavrov: US Policy of Sanctions on Iran Is Dead End

“The entire current logic of the US policy is set on making Iran the focus of all containment and punishment efforts… That is a dead-end,” Lavrov said in an interview with Sputnik on Friday.

He said the US sanctions on Iran “did not work before and will not work now”.

Lavrov advised US officials to abandon their “futile” efforts to “demonize Iran” and label the country as “the main problem of the region”.

He rather called for dialogue between the US and Iran to resolve issues. “We will help start such a dialogue.”

The top diplomat said the remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China – “stand for” the accord and blasted the US for trying to destroy it.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday the United States cannot reimpose UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic on September 20 – which is one month after the US demanded activation of a snapback mechanism inside the Iran nuclear deal – because the US is not a party to the agreement anymore.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US would return to the UN to have the sanctions reinstated on Iran on Sunday. The US would also do all it needed to make sure those sanctions are enforced, Pompeo said.

On August 14, the Security Council had also rejected a US-drafted resolution to extend an arms embargo on Iran that is due to expire in October under the JCPOA.

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