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Agence France-Presse

Iran’s foreign minister is embarking on a diplomatic tour to try to salvage the nuclear deal amid high tensions following the US withdrawal and global fears over reports of unprecedented clashes with Israel in Syria.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will leave late on Saturday for visits to China, Russia and Europe, a spokesman said on Friday, holding meetings with all five of the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran appeared determined not to be drawn into a wider regional conflict with Israel during the sensitive negotiations.
That is despite Israel’s claims that it struck dozens of Iranian targets inside Syria on Thursday as part of “Operation House of Cards”.

Israeli Defence Minister Minister Avigdor Lieberman urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to “throw the Iranians out” of his country.
Israel said the strikes were in response to a missile volley fired from southern Syria by Iran’s Al-Quds force, that struck the occupied Golan Heights without causing casualties.
But Iran flatly denied the Israeli version of events on Friday, saying Israel’s attacks were carried out on false “pretexts”.
“The repeated attacks by the Zionist regime on Syrian territory were carried out under pretexts that were invented by themselves and are without foundation,” said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.
Iran must tread a delicate line as it seeks to show resolve against Trump and the Israeli strikes without alienating the European partners it needs to rescue something from the nuclear deal.

Zarif will hold high-pressure talks with the other parties to the deal, first in Beijing and Moscow, and then with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Brussels on Tuesday.
All five have condemned Trump’s move to walk out of the deal and reimpose crippling sanctions, but European companies in particular will be highly vulnerable to economic pressure from Washington.
France still hopes for a wider settlement that will cover Iran’s alleged activities across the Middle East, and warned Tehran on Thursday “against any temptation for regional dominance”.
President Hassan Rowhani told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call on Thursday that he did not want “new tensions” in the Middle East.
Southern Syria was quiet but tense on Friday, with monitors saying Syrian, Iranian and allied Lebanese forces from Hezbollah were on high alert.

It was still unclear what had happened between Syria and Israel early on Thursday. A conflict monitor said Israel’s strikes killed 23 fighters.
Iranian analysts said Israel struck first and any retaliation was the work of the Syrian military, not Iran.
“The Israelis want to make this into an Iran-Israel thing, but it isn’t. Whatever happens in Syria happens under the command of the Syrians,” said Mohammad Marandi, who was part of Iran’s negotiation team leading up to the nuclear deal.
Analysts say Israel feels it has a green light from Washington to move more aggressively against Iran’s presence in Syria, particularly after Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
Iran has said it will stay in the deal only if the remaining members – Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia – can provide solid guarantees that its trade benefits will continue in spite of renewed US sanctions.

Russia – which is alone in having close relations with both Iran and Israel – has sought to position itself as a mediator to prevent war. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “all issues should be solved through dialogue” and warned Israel to avoid “actions that could be seen as provocative”.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that intelligence officials briefed ministers on Thursday and told them another clash with Iran in Syria was unlikely after the intensity of the strikes the night before.
But the paper warned in an editorial: “It would be better not to get caught up now in the self-assured arrogant spiral evident in the reactions in some television studios, at the Knesset and on social media … Tehran could nevertheless roll out its heavier weapon, Hezbollah, in which case the conflict could take on an entirely different scope.”


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Iran

Iran turns to diplomacy amid high regional tensions

File photo of Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York in September 2017. Photo: Reuters

Cattle stand next to tanks in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 10, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Iranian protestors burn a representation of a U.S. flag during a gathering after their Friday prayer in Tehran, Friday, May 11, 2018. Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in cities across the country to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman (C) talks to reporters during a visit at the Israeli settlement of Katzrin in the annexed-Golan Heights on May 11, 2018. Lieberman urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to expel Iranian forces from his country, after Israeli air strikes hit alleged Iranian targets in Syria. "I shall take advantage of this opportunity to send a message to Assad: throw the Iranians out," a defence ministry statement quoted Lieberman as saying during a visit to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. / AFP PHOTO / JALAA MAREY

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Foreign minister is heading to China, Russia and Europe to try to salvage something from the nuclear deal through talks with the five remaining partners


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Iran turns to diplomacy amid high regional tensions

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Foreign minister is heading to China, Russia and Europe to try to salvage something from the nuclear deal through talks with the five remaining partners

Foreign minister is heading to China, Russia and Europe to try to salvage something from the nuclear deal through talks with the five remaining partners