Washington is unable to build a naval coalition to escort tankers in the Gulf because its allies are too "ashamed" to join it, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday, lambasting recent US financial sanctions against him as a "failure" for diplomacy.
"Today the United States in alone in the world and cannot create a coalition. Countries that are its friends are too ashamed of being in a coalition with them," Zarif told a news conference in Tehran.
"They brought this situation upon themselves, with lawbreaking, by creating tensions and crises,” Agence France Presse quoted him as saying.
Iran and the United States have been locked in a battle of nerves since May 2018 when President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 deal placing limits on Iran's nuclear program and began reimposing sanctions.
Tensions soared after the Trump administration stepped up a US campaign of "maximum pressure" against Iran, with drones downed and tankers mysteriously attacked in Gulf waters.
In response, the United States has been seeking to form a coalition whose mission -- dubbed Operation Sentinel -- it says is to guarantee freedom of navigation in the strategic Gulf waters.
Asked on Monday about reports that he had been invited to meet Trump in the White House, Zarif said he had turned it down despite the threat of sanctions against him.
The United States imposed sanctions against Zarif on Wednesday, targeting any assets he has in America and squeezing his ability to function as a globe-trotting diplomat.
"Sanctioning a foreign minister means failure in talks," Zarif said.
He reiterated that European powers still party to the nuclear deal should accelerate efforts to salvage it, though Iran would leave the pact if necessary.
Zarif's press conference came a day after Iran announced its forces had seized a foreign ship in the Arabian Gulf allegedly carrying smuggled fuel. It was the Revolutionary Guard's third seizure of a vessel in recent weeks.
