Kerry rejects Iranian criticism of US sanctions

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio say they would rip up the nuclear deal and start over, on the thinking that the United States would be able to persuade European allies to reimpose economic sanctions. “The Iranian missile program is a legitimate defense program” and allowed under the landmark nuclear deal, he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gestures as he speaks during a panel “Next Steps for Iran and the World ” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016.

“But we don’t believe that that is what has made the difference in the activities of Iran in the region”.

In his first public remarks since worldwide sanctions were lifted following a United Nations report that Iran had fully complied in scaling back its nuclear program, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran should “exercise care the other party implements its commitments”.

His comments came Thursday in response to a complaint lodged by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (zah-REEF’), who told The Associated Press in an interview that new USA sanctions over Iran’s ballistic missile testing are “illegal” and an example of an American “addiction to coercion”. We are spending a fraction of what our neighbours spend on defence, so what’s all this fuss about?

“I didn’t know who we were swapping for, but I knew that the ballistic missile sanctions were being held until such a time that we could work something out on the hostages”, Corker said. Washington, he said, suffers from an “addiction to pressure, addiction to coercion, addiction to sanctions”.

Trump has said it would be tough to rip up the agreement with Iran on its nuclear program but has vowed that if he were elected president he would “police that contract so tough they don’t have a chance”. “It’s just preposterous to cry wolf about Iran’s ballistic missile program while at the same time you are selling – the United States is selling – tens of billions of dollars worth of toys to our neighbors”.

Kerry also said that many critics of the Iran deal were inflating the amount of money that Iran now has access to. He put in a plug for Iran’s workforce and relative stability in a region riven with conflict including Yemen and Syria.

“If we catch them (Iran) funding terrorism, they’re going to have a problem with the United States Congress and with other people, obviously”, Kerry later told reporters.