Someone should talk to Iran, US senator says amid Trump anti-Iran approach
Despite US President Donald Trump’s anti-Iran approach, Senator Chris Murphy says “someone should,” talk to Iran.
The Democratic senator made the comment in a Medium post published Tuesday after reports that he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“I think it’s dangerous to not talk to your enemies. Discussions and negotiations are a way to ease tensions and reduce the chances for crisis,” he said. “I cannot conduct diplomacy on behalf of the whole of the US government, and I don’t pretend to be in a position to do so. But if Trump isn’t going to talk to Iran, then someone should.”
The meeting has faced backlash from Trump and his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo.
“If they met, I don’t know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing America’s foreign policy, not their own,” Pompeo said during a news conference in Ethiopia.
The US president went even further, suggesting that the Connecticut lawmaker’s move was a violation of US law.
“Senator Murphy met with the Iranians; is that a fact? I just saw that on the way over. Is there anything that I should know? Because that sounds like, to me, a violation of the Logan Act,” Trump said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi has said that the meeting was part of the country's “general diplomacy.”
دکتر ظریف همواره گفته اند که با برخی اعضای کنگره آمریکا که از او درخواست ملاقات می کنند، دیدار و دیدگاه های ج.ا. ایران و واقعیات منطقه را تشریح می کند. این اقدامات بخشی از دیپلماسی عمومی است که شامل دیدار با نخبگان، مراکز فکری و مصاحبه و دیدار توجیهی با اصحاب رسانه ها نیز می شود.
— S.A MOUSAVI (@SAMOUSAVI9) February 18, 2020
Tensions between Iran and the US have risen in the wake of Trump’s anti-Iran campaign in the wake of his withdrawal from an internationally backed nuclear deal.
Tehran has vowed to resist the US economic war after scaling back its commitments under the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
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