By Sune Engel Rasmussen in Beirut and Aresu Eqbali in Tehran
Iran is trying to rally support from Russia, China and other
countries to help counter a U.S. campaign that has included
crippling economic sanctions and thousands of additional troops
committed to the Middle East.
As Washington struggles to build robust international support
for its pressure tactics against Tehran, Iranian officials are
working to take advantage.
They highlight American dominance of the global financial
system, which has irked Russia and China. They also warn against
U.S. cyber and psychological warfare, themes that resonate in
Moscow and Beijing.
The Iranian effort is on display this week at a summit in Ufa,
Russia, where security officials from 119 nations have gathered.
Among the participants is India, a key economic partner of Tehran,
and China, which -- along with Russia, Germany, the U.K. and France
-- is party to the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran that
the U.S. exited last year.
In a speech, a top Iranian security official called on "the
independent countries of the world" to break U.S. dominance of the
financial system.
"The U.S. has destabilized the international security system
with unilateralism and extraterritorial sanctions," Ali Shamkhani,
secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on
Tuesday. "If a broad spectrum of countries decide to stand against
the illegal blackmailing and bullying by the U.S., we can make the
U.S. retreat."
The summit takes place amid growing tensions between the U.S.
and Iran, following an attack on two tankers last week, which
Washington blamed on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
This week, the U.S. said it would send an additional 1,000
troops to the Middle East in response to "hostile behavior" by
Tehran, following a decision in May to deploy an extra 1,500
soldiers. Monday's commitment came the same day Iran said it would
stockpile more enriched uranium in the next 10 days than allowed
under the nuclear deal.
Iran has denied involvement in the tanker attack, and President
Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday said Iran doesn't want a war with any
nation, repeating a familiar line. Iran's military on Monday said
if it wanted to block tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, it didn't
need to lie about it.
China's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on Tuesday said
the U.S. risked opening a "Pandora's box" in its campaign against
Iran and called on both countries to de-escalate, the Associated
Press reported.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov voiced support
for Tehran, saying the international community needed to find ways
to restore Iranian oil exports, Russian state media TASS
reported.
Russian officials warned that the decision to increase the
number of U.S. troops in the Middle East could destabilize the
region.
"For quite a while, we have been witnessing the United States's
continuous attempts to increase political, psychological, economic
and military pressure on Iran," TASS reported Mr. Ryabkov as
saying. "I think that such actions are rather provocative and
cannot be considered as anything other than a deliberate policy to
instigate a war."
Separately on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian energy ministers met
in the Iranian city of Isfahan to continue discussions about an
oil-for-goods program in which proceeds from sales of Iranian crude
could pay for Russian equipment and agricultural products, Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak told the Russian Rossiya 24
television channel.
Russia's interests aren't completely aligned with Iran's,
though. The two countries are competing for influence in Syria as
the war wraps up there. Next week, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of
the Russian Security Council, will meet U.S. national-security
adviser John Bolton and Israeli security officials in Israel, an
arch-foe of Iran.
In its own rallying efforts, the U.S. has called on the United
Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Tehran over its
missile tests. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asked the
council, of which Russia and China are members, to prevent Iran
from circumventing an arms ban by authorizing inspections of ships
in ports and stopping them in high waters. The council hasn't so
far complied.
Traditional U.S. allies like the U.K. and Saudi Arabia have
backed Mr. Pompeo and American military assertions that Iran
orchestrated last week's tanker attacks and incidents in May that
involved four other ships in the same area.
Iran has tried to cleave off European allies of the U.S., with
limited success. Tehran framed its decision to exceed
enriched-uranium limits as an ultimatum to European countries,
pushing them to ensure Iran receives economic benefits from staying
in the deal.
The European Union has expressed disapproval of the American
campaign against Iran and its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but
officials like German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have said any
Iranian culpability in the tanker attacks would complicate efforts
to help.
Georgi Kantchev and Thomas Grove in Moscow contributed to this
article.
Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at sune.rasmussen@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 18, 2019 14:54 ET (18:54 GMT)
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