According to The Times of Israel, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif — who was the Islamic Republic’s top diplomat during the negotiation of President Barack Obama’s signature Iran nuclear capitulation deal — is accusing recently re-elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, along with the Mohammed bin Salman-led government of Saudi Arabia, of instigating an American war with Iran.
Per The Times of Israel:
Iran’s top diplomat said Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump’s aim “is to bring us to our knees to talk” — but national security adviser John Bolton and key US allies in the Mideast want “regime change at the very least” and the “disintegration of Iran.”
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he doubts Trump wants conflict because the president ran on a campaign promise “not to waste another $7 trillion in our region in order to make the situation only worse.”
But Zarif said what he called “the B team” — Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed — is trying “to push Iran to take action” as a pretext for “crazy” and “adventurous” U.S. actions.
The comments come as the United States recently ended all remaining oil waivers for Iranian crude exports and therefore tightened sanctions even further on the Iranian mullocracy. The Daily Wire’s Kassy Dillon reported earlier this week:
On Monday, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. would increase its pressure on Iran by cracking down on countries that import Iranian oil.
Last year, the Trump administration provided sanction waivers to several countries that purchased oil from Iran. But on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would not renew the waivers after they expire on May 2.
“Almost one year ago, after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, President Trump implemented the strongest pressure campaign in history against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The goal remains simple: to deprive the outlaw regime of the funds it has used to destabilize the Middle East for four decades and incentivize Iran to behave like a normal country.”
The Times of Israel also notes Iran’s response to Trump’s further upping of sanctions on the world’s number one terror-exporting regime. “Iran reiterated its long-running threat to close the Strait of Hormuz if it’s prevented from using the crucial waterway in the Persian Gulf through which about a third of all oil traded at sea passes,” the outlet noted. “The U.S. Navy has in the past accused Iranian patrol boats of harassing American warships in the waterway.”
Iran frequently threatens the Jewish state of Israel with existential elimination. But Shiite Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is the iconic center of the Sunni Arab world, also have a longstanding fierce regional rivalry of their own. Iran and Saudi Arabia engage in frequent proxy conflicts against one another, such as the current civil war in Saudi Arabia’s neighboring country of Yemen. After the 2015 signing of the Iran nuclear deal, many Sunni Arab states — such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — have extensively warmed their military and intelligence-sharing relations with Israel, due to their mutual arch-foe of an empowered Iran.