Despite mounting pressure from the US, Iran and the EU will work together to restore mutual trade and 'go around' American sanctions placed on Tehran, the nation’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told RT Arabic.

As Washington stepped up sanctions against Tehran, the EU announced that it would create a mechanism protecting European companies that were willing to do “legitimate business” with the Islamic Republic. It will be “just a preliminary phase” before Tehran can fully “restore trade relations” with Europe, Zarif said in an exclusive interview with RT Arabic.

We will see how the mechanism works in practice but in theory it seems quite effective. I believe that it provides us with a good way around the sanctions.

The minister said Europeans believed they would be able to announce the mechanism much earlier, and he wondered whether they had been pressured by the US. But once implemented, the protective mechanism can be expanded to include non-EU states, he noted.

Also on rt.com EU countries move to evade US’ Iran sanctions by setting up payment channel for ‘humanitarian’ trade

Speaking to RT, Zarif blasted the US and EU nations for flooding the Middle East with weapons, saying that arms that are being “pumped” into the region are playing a major role in the huge civilian death toll in Yemen.

The bombs that fall daily on the Yemeni people, killing so many, are not locally made. This weaponry was produced in the US, France, the UK and other European countries. They should take responsibility for this.

Also on rt.com US bomb pieces found at Yemen bus strike site as Pentagon says ‘we may never know’ who supplied it

Switching to another war-torn nation, Syria, Zarif stated that “the best way to uphold peace and security” in the nation is to restore the government’s “control and sovereignty over the country’s entire territory.”

He welcomed the decision of US President Donald Trump to start pulling American forces out of Syria, noting that their presence was “illegal” in the first place.

They should urgently withdraw. This would benefit the entire region. The presence of US troops is against the interest of [Middle Eastern] countries.

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