Zarif: US Doesn’t Know what it’s doing in our Backyard

Local Editor

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized the presence of American military forces in the Gulf and questioned why US forces are “in Iran's backyard” some 7,000 miles away from home.

Zarif took to Twitter on Thursday to slam the US navy for using the fictitious name of "the Arabian Gulf" to refer to the Gulf.

The Iranian foreign minister referred to the the historical background of the name Persian Gulf, saying that the waterway has been called as such “2,000 yrs longer than US has existed.”

“US Navy can’t seem to find its way around our waters,” Zarif tweeted. "Perhaps because it hasn’t figured out its name: Persian Gulf, as it's been called for 2,000 yrs longer than US has existed. Or maybe it doesn't know what it's doing in our backyard, 7,000 miles from home.”

Zarif, who is in Singapore to take part in the 51st Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] ministerial meeting, also lambasted the US for withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and re-imposing "unilateral" sanctions against Tehran.

The top of the Iranian diplomacy highlighted the international mistrust of the US, saying that Washington has become addicted to sanctions.

He said while the US was preparing to re-impose sanctions against Iran, many countries were already trying to find ways around the sanctions and adopt innovative ways to pursue their own policies.

Zarif had separate meetings with the Southeast Asian nation’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as well as with the foreign ministers of Russia, Japan, Turkey, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team