BICOM

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said yesterday that Tehran made clear during negotiations with the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) that it will continue arming its allies in the region, which include terror groups.

Araqchi was a senior Iranian negotiator during the talks which last week resulted in an agreement which will likely see international sanctions lifted in return for a slowdown in Iranian nuclear development over the next decade. He told Iranian state television yesterday that, “We have told them [the P5+1 powers] in the negotiations that we will supply arms to anyone and anywhere necessary and will import weapons from anywhere we want and we have clarified this during the negotiations.” Iran is expected to receive a massive cash windfall following the end of sanctions as global companies vie to do business there.

Iran provides significant backing for terror groups in the region including Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah in Lebanon, plus rebels in Yemen. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei underscored Araqchi’s assertion during a belligerent speech over the weekend, in which he said that “Iran will not give up support of its friends in the region,” including “sincere resistance fighters in Lebanon and Palestine.” During the same speech, Khamenei took aim at the United States, saying “Even after this deal our policy toward the arrogant US will not change.” He added that “American interests and politics in the region are 180 degrees different to ours.”

Responding yesterday to Khamenei’s comments, US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted in an interview with Al-Arabiya that they were “very disturbing, it’s very troubling.” He also reiterated that “support for terrorism and proxies who are destabilizing other countries” is “unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to warn against the dangers of last week’s deal in a meeting with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter. Netanyahu told Carter that the agreement “will put Iran at the threshold of an entire nuclear arsenal in a decade or so.”