BFF-38 US has ‘addiction to sanctions’, says Iran’s foreign minister

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US has ‘addiction to sanctions’, says Iran’s foreign minister

TEHRAN, Aug 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The United States has an “addiction to
sanctions”, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said in an
interview with CNN.

“I believe there is a disease in the United States and that is the
addiction to sanctions,” Zarif told the US broadcaster on Sunday.

“Even during the Obama administration the United States put more emphasis
on keeping the sanctions it had not lifted rather than implementing its
obligation on the sanctions it lifted.”

It was Zarif’s first interview with Western media since US President Donald
Trump walked out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May, leading Washington to
reimpose sanctions earlier this month.

“We felt that the United States had learned that at least as far as Iran is
concerned, sanctions do produce economic hardship but do not produce the
political outcomes that they intended them to produce,” he said.

“I thought that the Americans had learned that lesson. Unfortunately I was
wrong,” he said.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1934 hrs