Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (L) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speak during a news conference at Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra, March 15, 2016.
Advertisement
The United States on Monday vowed to continue pushing for U.N. Security Council action on the ballistic missile tests and accused Russian Federation of looking for reasons not to respond to what is says are Iranian violations of the resolution.
As reported at the time, it said Iran was “called upon” not to carry out any activity, including launches, relating to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. She added that the USA would not relent on the issue, “no matter the quibbling that we heard today about this and that”.
During the meeting, Zarif discussed the two countries’ potentials for developing ties and answered Plibersek’s questions on elections and the economic situation of Iran, Yemeni and Syrian crises and the prospect of cease-fire in these two countries.
“We all need to cooperate together to fight Daesh and extremism”, he said, adding, “We have seen instances of that type of extremism creating crimes across the world from Sydney to San Bernardino and everywhere in between”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters in Paris that France “condemns” the Iranian missile tests.
The US has threatened Iran with new sanctions over the recent tests and talks between Europe and the United States on the issue are expected soon in Paris.
Churkin noted that the term “called upon” in the new resolution was an important change in legal language from previous adopted texts that barred Iran from developing such technology.
Labor MP Michael Danby, who also met with Dr Zarif, said he was concerned Iran remained opposed to recognising the state of Israel.
The missiles launched last week by the Iranians had the words, “Israel must be wiped off the map”, written in Hebrew before launch, proving once again the Iranians haven’t changed their hostile positions despite being brought into the modern, western world through the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn, told reporters there was “strong bipartisan movement in the Senate” to extend the Iran Sanctions Act, which expires in December.
Advertisement
Labour Party leader Andrew Little said he did not have a problem about engaging with Iran as the “international thaw” was under way.
