Iran’s Zarif says world should oppose U.S. sanctions or expect same

Dubai (Reuters) – The world community should oppose the United States’ use of sanctions to impose its will as a “bully,” or expect to face sanctions itself, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose U.S. sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, which is set to expire in October, four sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The Trump administration says that on Saturday all United Nations sanctions on Iran have to be restored and the conventional arms embargo on the country will no longer expire in mid-October.

“The Americans as a rule act as a bully and impose sanction… The world community should decide how to act towards bullying,” Zarif told Iranian state television hours before the U.S. move aiming to restore U.N. sanctions against Iran.

“As they (other countries) will face the same thing tomorrow when America takes the same action towards the Nord Stream project, as well as other projects because a bully will continue to act as a bully if he is allowed to do it once,” Zarif said.

The United States and many European countries bitterly oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which they say will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and deprive transit states such as Poland and Ukraine of leverage over Russia.