Tasnim \u2013 Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had a meeting with US Senator Dianne Feinstein, saying such meetings are aimed at neutralizing the so-called B-Team\u2019s impact on the American political society.<\/p>\n
Asked on Saturday about the meeting between Zarif and Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.), Abbas Mousavi said, \u201cDialogue and exchange of views with America\u2019s non-administrative political elites, including members of\u00a0Congress (who are not administrative officials), have been taking place\u00a0for more than two decades with the aim of enlightenment and declaration of the Islamic Republic\u2019s policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individuals are neither administrative officials nor entitled to negotiate (with Iran), and\u00a0Iranian officials have not negotiated and will not negotiate with them either,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of such meetings \u2013 which, by the way,\u00a0take a lot of time and energy from the foreign minister in his tightly scheduled\u00a0visits- is to counteract the influence of lobbies such as the \u2018B-Team\u2019 over the US political society and public opinion. That\u2019s why they (the meetings) face a harsh reaction and resentment from the hardliners,\u201d Mousavi said.<\/p>\n
His comments came after Politico reported on Thursday that Feinstein, who sits on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, met with Zarif a few weeks ago when he was in New York.<\/p>\n
The California Democrat said the dinner was \u201carranged in consultation with the State Department.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201c\u200bThe office was in touch with State in advance of the meeting to let them know it was happening and to get an update on US-Iran activity,\u201d Feinstein\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Asked about Feinstein\u2019s meeting with Zarif, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blasted the senator and former secretary of state John Kerry for engaging Iran.<\/p>\n
\u200bThe Logan Act, which was enacted in 1799, forbids private American citizens from communicating with a foreign government having a dispute with the US. However, nobody has ever been prosecuted under the act.<\/p>\n
The B-Team, a phrase first used by Zarif, refers to a group of four anti-Iran hawks, namely US National Security Adviser John Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud, and crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tasnim \u2013 Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had a meeting with US Senator Dianne Feinstein, saying such meetings are aimed at neutralizing the so-called B-Team\u2019s impact on the American political society. Asked on Saturday about the meeting between Zarif and Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.), Abbas Mousavi said, \u201cDialogue and exchange …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,388],"tags":[1637,2273,2875,3620,4516,555],"class_list":["post-17381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-slide","tag-fm","tag-iranian","tag-meets","tag-senator","tag-spokesman","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17383,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions\/17383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aldiplomasy.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}