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New US sanctions will end path of diplomacy, Iran foreign ministry says
- The Trump administration’s new sanctions against Iran’s supreme leader and foreign minister are ‘destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security’, Tehran says
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The United States’ new sanctions against Iran’s supreme leader and foreign minister have closed off diplomacy, Tehran said on Tuesday, blaming Washington for abandoning the only route to peace just days after the two foes came within minutes of conflict.
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US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order imposing sanctions against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior figures.
Sanctions against Foreign Minister Mohmmad Javad Zarif are expected later this week.
“Imposing useless sanctions on Iran’s Supreme Leader and the commander of Iran’s diplomacy is the permanent closure of the path of diplomacy,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Twitter.
“Trump’s desperate administration is destroying the established international mechanisms for maintaining world peace and security,” Mousavi said.
The moves came after Iran shot down a US drone last week and Trump called off a retaliatory air strike minutes before impact, which would have been the first time the US had bombed Iran in decades of hostility between them.
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Trump said he decided at the last minute that too many people would die.
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