Zarif warns U.S. of consequences over sanctions

The United States must be prepared for consequences if it tries to stop Iran from selling oil and using the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned Wednesday, while also offering to negotiate prisoner swaps with Washington.

The United States Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers that allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers, most of them in Asia, to continue importing limited volumes.

“We believe that Iran will continue to sell its oil. We will continue to find buyers for our oil and we will continue to use the Strait of Hormuz as a safe transit passage for the sale of our oil,” Zarif told an event at the Asia Society in New York.

Reinforcing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s stance, Zarif warned: “If the United States takes the crazy measure of trying to prevent us from doing that, then it should be prepared for the consequences.” He did not give specifics.

Oil prices hit their highest level since November Tuesday after Washington’s announcement.

When asked if the U.S. pressure campaign on Tehran aimed to spark further negotiations or regime change, Zarif said: “The B-team wants regime change at the very least.” He described the B-team as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Zayed.

“It is not a crisis yet, but it is a dangerous situation. Accidents ... are possible. I wouldn’t discount the B-team plotting an accident anywhere in the region, particularly as we get closer to the election. We are not there yet.”

Zarif said he doubted Trump wanted conflict because the president ran on a campaign pledge “not to waste another $7 trillion in our region to make the situation only worse.”

“President Trump has a plan, but he’s being lured into not a plan but a trap,” Zarif warned in a question-and-answer session at the Asia Society. “It will cost another $7 trillion and even a greater disaster.”

Zarif suggested possible cooperation with the U.S. to bring stability to Iraq and Afghanistan, a priority for both Tehran and Washington.

He also said he was willing to swap British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained in Iran since 2016, for an Iranian woman detained in Australia for the past three years on a U.S. extradition request.

“I feel sorry for them, and I have done my best to help,” Zarif said of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. “But nobody talks about this lady in Australia who gave birth to a child in prison. ... I put this offering on the table publicly now exchange them.”

Zarif then went on to say that Iran had told the U.S. administration six months ago that it was open to a prisoner swap deal, but had not yet received a response.“All these people that are in prison inside the United States, on extradition requests from the United States, we believe their charges are phony.

“The United States believes the charges against these people in Iran are phony. Let’s not discuss that,” he said. “Let’s have an exchange. I’m ready to do it and I have authority to do it.”

Separately, the Trump administration Wednesday granted important exemptions to new sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, watering down the effects of the measures while also eliminating an aspect that would have complicated U.S. foreign policy efforts.

Foreign governments and businesses that have dealings with the Guard and its affiliates will not be subject to a ban on U.S. travel under waivers outlined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in two notices published in the Federal Register. The waivers leave intact sanctions that apply directly to the Guard and its proxies, which are the first agencies of a foreign government that have ever been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S.

Under U.S. immigration law, foreigners found to have provided designated foreign terrorist organizations with “material support” can be banned from the U.S. When it was announced earlier this month, the designation raised fears that U.S. diplomats and troops might have to end contacts with officials in countries that have ties with Iran or elements of the Guard.

Lebanon, where Iran and the Guard are active in their support of Hezbollah, and Iraq, where they back Shiite militias and have close ties to the government, are two such countries where the U.S. is heavily engaged on the military and diplomatic fronts.

Pompeo said in the notices that he decided to waive the travel bans in U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.

In one notice, he said the sanctions “shall not apply to any ministry, department, agency, division, or other group or subgroup within any foreign government” unless that entity is covered by existing U.S. sanctions.

In the second notice, he said the sanctions wouldn’t apply “to any business, organization, or group, whether public or private, solely based on its provision of material support to any foreign government subentity that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”

Both notices said Pompeo retained the right to reverse the waivers.