Iran foreign minister blasts Trump officials over consulate closure

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Reuters
Jan Wolfe  September 30, 2018 / 2:22 PM / Updated 15 hours ago

[excerpt]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iraq/iran-foreign-minister-blasts-trump-officials-over-consulate-closure-idUSKCN1MA0WE

(Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday denied that his country was responsible for increased threats against a U.S. consulate in the Iraqi city of Basra.

“We of course have influence in Iraq but that does not mean we control people in Iraq, as the United States doesn’t control people in countries with whom it has good relations,” Zarif said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

Zarif added that recent warnings issued to the Iranian government by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House national security adviser John Bolton were counterproductive.