Ammar Hakim: Iraq Not to Keep Mum on Anti-Iran Sanctions by US

Hakim said that the Iraqi government is closely monitoring the US’ anti-Iran movements, adding that Washington’s policies against Tehran are doomed to failure.

“Iraq will surely not remain silent vis-à-vis the sanctions imposed by the US against the Iran,” he added.

Hakim condemned the US’ unilateral sanctions imposed against the Iranian nation, and reiterated that Iraq would not adopt an impartial stance towards the US pressures on Iran.

In relevant remarks on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blasted the US for applying “economic terrorism” against his country, warning that ordinary people and patients in Iran are suffering from it.

Zarif posted a video on his official Twitter page, showing a “little boy whose heartbroken mother can’t get him prosthetic legs as he grows”, and emphasized that innocent civilians are being targeted by sanctions and economic terrorism applied to Iran by Washington.

“This is @realDonaldTrump’s ‘economic war’. And war and talks—with or without preconditions—don’t go together,” he underlined.

Zarif’s remarks came a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is keen to hold negotiations with Iran “with no preconditions” amid the intensification of tensions between the two countries.

Addressing a news conference in Switzerland earlier in the day, Pompeo said, “We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions. We are ready to sit down with them.”

In reaction to Pompeo’s statements, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said a game of words by the United States is not important to Iran, but the Islamic Republic expects a change in Washington’s general approach to the Iranian nation.

“For the Islamic Republic of Iran, a game of words and expressing covert goals under the guise of new words is not a criterion for action, but a change in the United States’ general approach and practical stance toward the Iranian nation is the criterion,” he said.