by Our Foreign Desk

IRAN condemned continued sabre-rattling by the US and Israel yesterday even as the United Nations approved the new agreement on Iranian nuclear energy.

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said on a visit to Israel that the agreement did “nothing to prevent … the US military option.”

His visit is seen as an attempt to placate Israel’s aggressive government after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the deal would open the way for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons as Israel has done.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said: “Applying force … is not an option, but an unwise and dangerous temptation,” adding: “There are people who talk about illegal and illegitimate application of force” for their own purposes.

He called the nuclear deal reached last week a “victory of diplomacy over war and violence.”

Israel has in the past threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, as it did an Iraqi power plant under construction in 1981.

Mr Netanyahu seized upon a speech by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday to claim that Iran would continue supporting forces opposed to Israel and the West.

The ayatollah reaffirmed support for “the oppressed Palestinian nation, Yemen, Syria, Iraq (and) Bahrain.”

This prompted Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry to summon the Iranian embassy’s acting charge d’affaires Mortadha Sanubari on Sunday evening to complain about the “flagrant and unacceptable interference” in the emirate’s internal affairs.

However, the UN security council voted unanimously yesterday to endorse the deal between Iran, Germany and the five permanent council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.

The agreement lifts sanctions against Iran in return for verification that its peaceful nuclear energy programme is not being used to develop nuclear weapons.

With sanctions set to be lifted, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported yesterday that Germany and Iran would hold an economic conference later this summer or in the early autumn.

The last such event was held in 2002, before the US-led sanctions were enforced.