TEHRAN – In a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Wednesday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the United States not only has started an “economic war” against Iran it has also launched a “daily hate propaganda” against the Islamic Republic.

“They have started economic war against our people and we are also facing a daily hate propaganda by Americans,” Zarif told Kono before the arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Tehran on Friday afternoon.

The Trump administration has intensified its sanctions campaign against Iran within its declared “maximum pressure” policy toward Tehran.

Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani have called the U.S. unprecedented sanctions against Iran as an example of “economic terrorism”.

In its newest sanctions measure, the United States has hit Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC) with economic sanctions. The move aims to choke off financing to Iran’s largest and most profitable petrochemical group and extends to its 39 subsidiaries and “foreign-based sales agents,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement on June 8.

Zarif said Iran will find solution to sanctions effect by reducing its budget on oil incomes.

“In this hard condition we will find solutions for the welfare of our people, including a revision in budget and following monetary policies without reliance on oil,” Zarif stated.

For his part, Kono described the visit of his country’s prime minister to the “friendly” country of Iran as “historic” and said Japan is ready to help deescalate tension between Iran and the United States.

Amid escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington, the U.S. has sent military reinforcements, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers, and a battery of patriot missiles, to the Middle East, citing alleged unspecified “threats” from Iran.

“We believe that in this important region a lesser tension will benefit all, otherwise we all lose,” Kono pointed out.

He added, “Japan is ready to do whatever that leads to reducing tension.”

The foreign ministers of Iran and Japan also held the second round of their talks and after that Zarif went to Mehrabad airport to welcome Abe’s arrival in Tehran.

PA/PA