Iran’s foreign minister accused Israel of looking for war and warned that its behavior and that of the United States was increasing the chances of a clash in the region.
“Certainly, some people are looking for war … Israel,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the Munich Security Conference.
Accusing Israel of violating international law after bombing campaigns in Syria, Zarif also criticised European powers for not calling out Israel and the United States for their behaviour in the region.
“The risk [of war] is great. The risk will be even greater if you continue to turn a blind eye to severe violations of international law.
“Israeli behaviour is putting international law on the shelf, U.S. behaviour is putting international law on the shelf.”
Zarif blasted the United States’ “unhealthy fixation” with Iran and condemned the Trump administration’s efforts to press European countries to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Iran’s top diplomat addressed the conference a day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence prodded European powers Germany, France and Britain to follow Washington in withdrawing from the deal and to “stop undermining U.S. sanctions.”
Zarif said “we have long been the target of an unhealthy fixation, let’s say obsession” from the U.S. He said Pence “arrogantly demanded that Europe must join the United States in undermining its own security and breaking its obligations.”
The foreign minister also said that the European mechanism to trade with Tehran fell short and that France, Britain and Germany needed to do more to show their commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal.
“Instex [the mechanism] falls short of commitments by the E3 [France, Germany, Britain] to save the nuclear deal,” he said. “Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against the dangerous tide of U.S. unilateralism.”