Zarif: The US cannot expect to remain safe

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned the US today that "they cannot expect to remain safe" after launching, as he said, an economic war against Tehran.

Zarif issued a series of threats due to ongoing tensions in the Gulf, in a statement after a meeting with his German counterpart Heik Mas in Tehran.

The crisis stems from US President Donald Trump's decision a little more than a year ago to withdraw the US from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers, after which the US reimposed sanctions on Iran, primarily targeting its oil sector.

"Trump himself said that the US has launched an economic war against Iran. The only solution to reduce tensions in this region is to stop that economic war," Zarif said.

Zarif also warned that whoever starts a war with Iran will not be the one to end it.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his country and other European countries want to find a way to save the nuclear deal, which requires Iran to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

However, Europe has not yet found a way for Iran to avoid the newly introduced US sanctions.

Iran has given the Europeans until July 7 to find a way to save the deal or it will stop abiding by some of the restrictions it stipulates.

Iran has previously warned that it will continue to enrich uranium to levels closer to weapons-grade requirements.

Zarif's tough tone is likely the result of Iran's growing discontent with Europe and increasingly tough US sanctions against his country.

Iran's national currency, the rial, now trades at nearly 130.000 to the dollar, up from 32.000 to the dollar at the time of the 2015 deal. This devalued people's incomes and raised the prices of almost every product in the country.

European countries have promised to introduce a mechanism called INSTEX that would allow Iran to trade in humanitarian goods despite US sanctions. That program, however, has not yet been launched, as the spokesman of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out before the statements of Zarif and Mas to the press.

Trump justified America's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal by stating that it did not limit Iran's ballistic missile program, nor did the agreement resolve, as the Americans say, Iran's malign influence in the Middle East.