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NATO, G7 regional record disastrous, no high ground to lecture others: Iran FM spokesman

(From L) Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Croatia's President Zoran Milanovic, Poland's President Andrzej Duda, US President Joe Biden and Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda look at an installation prior to a family photo as part of the NATO summit at the Alliance's headquarters, in Brussels, on June 14, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the group of seven industrial nations, the G7, lack any moral high ground to preach other countries, especially Iran, which is the gravitational center for security in the West Asia region.

Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks in a Tuesday tweet in reaction to the final communiqué issued on Monday by the heads of state and governments participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels and a Sunday communiqué by the G7 summit.

“W/ a disastrous record in our region, NATO & G7 have no high ground to preach from—particularly to Iran as an anchor of peace & security in the region,” he tweeted.

The spokesman added that "equating aggrieved and spoiler" is only an indicative of a “flawed and politicized approach.”

Khatibzadeh then advised the G7 and NATO leaders to avoid lecturing others and abide by international law instead, alluding to the fact that both international bodies have on frequent occasions violated established norms of international law through interference in other countries' affairs, especially with regard to Iran's nuclear program and its regional influence in West Asia.

Both bodies demanded Iran in their final statements to scrap its totally peaceful and defensive missile program, ignoring the fact that Iran has announced time and again that the country’s defense program will never be up for any negotiations.

Both the G7 and NATO leaders claimed that they are committed to “ensuring that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon.”

They also emphasized that the restoration and full implementation of the landmark nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and world powers would help all parties to address regional and security concerns. They welcomed “the substantive discussions between JCPOA participants” in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in which the US is also indirectly involved, which aim to “accomplish a return of the United States and Iran to their JCPOA commitments.”

Khatibzadeh's new remarks came after he flatly dismissed, during his weekly press briefing on Monday, a demand on Iran by the G7 to suspend all its activities relating to ballistic missiles, saying those countries were well aware that UN Security Council Resolution 2231 by no means limits Iran’s nuclear program.

He added that it would be better for the G7 leaders to fulfill their obligations instead, stop interfering in the affairs of regional countries, and try to make more contributions to peace and stability by building respectful relationships with regional states.

In 2015, Iran and six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — signed the historic nuclear deal, which was upheld in the form of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

However, under former President Donald Trump, the US withdrew from the JCPOA and initiated a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

Besides re-imposing the anti-Iran sanctions lifted by the JCPOA, the US targeted the Iranian nation with several sets of additional bans under new pretexts and labels.

After the withdrawal, Iran waited for a year for the Europeans to take remedial measures and thwart the unilateral American sanctions as per their obligations under the JCPOA, but to no avail.

Now, with Trump gone, the new US administration under President Joe Biden says it seeks to rejoin the deal, but it has so far refused to take meaningful action to regain Iran’s trust and come back to compliance.

Since April, representatives from Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have been holding talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal and bringing the US back to compliance with the accord.


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