Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has announced that Tehran rejects the proposal to sign the 123 agreement put forward by US Senator Lindsey Graham, a hawk of Congress and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, commissioned by President Donald Trump to draft a new agreement with Iran to replace it. The nuclear deal, which it pulled out in May 2018, as Iran asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the day before yesterday to address the sanctions imposed by the United States on Zarif, describing the US action as a "dangerous precedent."
In detail, Zarif said in a speech yesterday broadcast on Iranian television that «123 agreement proposed by Graham, which was commissioned by the US president to negotiate, contains nine conditions, most important of which is not enrichment, and this is rejected, stressing:« If Iran wants to sign this agreement and similar agreements "Things would not have reached this stage of tensions."
The 123 agreement requires countries that have nuclear deals with the United States to sign nuclear non-proliferation standards, where more than 40 countries have signed.
The Daily Beast revealed that Graham is in close coordination with senior Trump administration officials who focus on Middle East policy to find an alternative to the Obama administration's deal with Iran, according to four people familiar with the moves.
The senator stressed that the United States should demand that Iran sign the "gold standard," a pledge not to enrich nuclear fuel and reprocess.
This came at a time when Iran asked Antonio Guterres, to address the US sanctions on Zarif, and accused Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Rawangi, in a letter to Guterres, the United States of "flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of international law", and urged the international community to condemn US behavior .
"Forcing countries to comply with illegal US demands threatens multilateralism as a basis for international relations and sets a dangerous precedent, while paving the way for those who aspire to the division of nations, not their union," Rawangi wrote in the letter.
He called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations «to play an active role in maintaining the integrity of the United Nations in line with your responsibility in the face of the current dangerous trend».
"The illegal imposition of sanctions on Iran's foreign minister also violates the principle of sovereign equality of states," he said.
On the other hand, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper put pressure on Japan to participate in a US-led naval security mission in the Strait of Hormuz.
"Any country interested in freedom of navigation and free trade should consider participating in this kind of surveillance in the strait," Esber, who took office last July, told reporters en route to Tokyo. "I think this is something the Japanese should think about," he said.
Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Awaya told reporters after talks with Esber yesterday that he would consider Japan's role in the strait, a strategic shipping route in the Gulf.