In an indirect criticism of the United States and the G-7 summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif boasted of a successful meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which China hosted.
Zarif tweeted, “SCO summit in China illustrated how fast the world is changing. Commitment to mutually beneficial cooperation, solid support for JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] and rejection of unilateralism. President [Hassan] Rouhani had constructive meetings with many leaders, including substantive bilaterals with [Chinese President] Xi Jinping and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.” The tweet was accompanied with pictures of Rouhani’s meetings with Putin, Xi and also Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Zarif followed with an additional tweet about the unsuccessful G-7 summit in which the seven largest advanced economies in the world gathered. “While the G7 were busy fighting among themselves in Quebec — and unsuccessfully trying to appease the habitual Deal-Breaker-in-Chief — the SCO summit in Qingdao illustrated something altogether different: respectful cooperation among nations committed to multilateralism,” Zarif tweeted. Zarif’s tweet was not just a criticism toward President Donald Trump, calling him the Deal-Breaker-in-Chief, but also toward European countries who had pleaded and failed to keep the United States in the 2015 JCPOA.
While the United States seems intent on charting its own path, even one divergent from its traditional allies in Europe and Canada, Iran is emphasizing the need for multilateralism. During his speech at the SCO summit, Rouhani said that the world is “facing many unprecedented challenges.” He placed the threats of unilateralism alongside the threats of terrorism and extremism. Rouhani described the US violation of the nuclear deal as an act of unilateralism that he said would “weaken regional cooperation.”
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