Move FM Global News

NEW YORK, New York – Iran has slammed a column appearing on the Bloomberg news portal last Monday which, in the Iranian government’s view encouraged violence, terror and sabotage.

The op-ed, ‘Sabotage in Iran is preferable to a deal with Iran,’ was written by columnist Eli Lake, a Bloomberg opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. Lake is the former senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and has covered national security and intelligence for The Washington Times, The New York Sun and UPI.

Iran’s Minister and head of media at the United Nations Alireza Miryousefi (pictured) wrote to Bloomberg’s editor complaining about the article.

Bloomberg published the letter on its website on Wednesday, two days after the Lake article appeared.

“Lake’s column is one that is against all journalistic standards, encourages violence, terror and sabotage, and makes a number of factual errors and assumptions,” Miryousefi wrote.

“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. Such measures do nothing less than keeping tensions high, and could ignite a full range escalation. 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.””

“Secondly, five years ago, 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. Consequently, the the rest of the world has strongly criticized this blatant U.S. retreat from its obligations,” wrote Iran’s UN mission’s head of media.

“Thirdly, it should be mentioned that 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. 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.”

Separately in Baghdad on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran and Iraq should get prepared against security threats, including the threats posed by terrorist groups such as Daesh.

Zarif was speaking at a joint press conference with Iraqi foreign Minister Fuad Hussein after the pair met earlier Sunday.

Hussein noted that the two foreign ministers called for protecting Iraq’s national sovereignty.