TEHRAN — Iran’s UN Mission has denounced a Bloomberg article for encouraging violence, terror and sabotage against Iran, saying the article promotes violence and terrorism.

Alireza Miryousefi, head of media office of Iran’s Mission to the UN, on July 16 responded to a Bloomberg opinion column written by Eli Lake titled “Sabotage in Iran Is Preferable to a Deal With Iran”.

In his response published in the Letter to the Editor section of the American news outlet, Miryousefi said Lake’s column is “one that against all journalistic standards encourages violence, terror and sabotage, and makes a number of factual errors and assumptions.”

“Firstly, praising the illegal assassination of nuclear scientists and encouraging sabotage in Iran’s infrastructures amounts to what are inhumane, barbaric acts that promote violence and terrorism,” he wrote.

According to Miryousefi, such measures do nothing less than keeping tensions high, and could ignite a full range escalation.

He said Iran has publicly announced: “If it’s concluded that a regime or a government had a hand in the incident, directly or indirectly, the Islamic Republic will respond decisively.”

Five years ago, he continued, “We reached an historic agreement, the JCPOA, or Iran Nuclear Deal, which addressed different aspects of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. It was only after two years of intensive, difficult negotiations that all parties were satisfied that all issues had been resolved.”

It was the Trump administration that unilaterally withdrew from this international accord and violated UN Security Council resolution 2231, which enshrined it in international law, Miryousefi said, adding that the rest of the world has strongly criticized this blatant U.S. retreat from its obligations.

Lake’s article argued that recent incidents in Iran, among them the one at the Natanz nuclear facility, showed that there were better ways to frustrate what it called the “nuclear ambitions” of the Islamic Republic.

Iran has not officially declared whether the incident at the Natanz complex was an accident or an act of sabotage, but the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said the main cause has been determined and will be announced at an appropriate time.

Some reports suggested Tel Aviv’s alleged role, but Israeli officials neither confirmed nor denied the regime’s involvement.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have said much of the speculation linking the incident to Israel is nothing but bluster which pleased Israeli leaders, warning Tel Aviv of serious consequences if it turned out to be true.

The Bloomberg article further claimed that one of the recent incidents in Iran appeared to have targeted “an underground research facility for chemical weapons.”

Miryousefi said Iran has been the biggest victim of chemical weapons attacks in contemporary history, courtesy of Saddam Hussein, who was supported by the West in his war on Iran.

“These attacks were accompanied not only by silence, but also with the shameful aid of Western countries,” he said.

“Iran has no program or plans to produce chemical weapons, and the claim made in the opinion piece is not just bizarre, but completely fallacious,” he added.

MH/PA