Malaysia Does Not Support U.S. Curbs on Iran, Premier Says
U.S. economic sanctions against Iran are illegal and Malaysia does not support them, Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad said.
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. economic sanctions against Iran are illegal and Malaysia does not support them, the southeast Asian nation’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Saturday in Doha.
The curbs have constrained Malaysia’s access to an important market and trading partner, he said at a conference in the Qatari capital.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Iran for what it considers the Persian Gulf country’s aggressive and destabilizing policies in the region. Iran and U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia are engaged in a proxy war in Yemen, and Washington blames Tehran for a surprise attack in September on Saudi oil installations.
Mahathir also said that “too much politics” rather than economic logic has driven the trade dispute between the U.S. and China. “Trade wars do not solve anything,” he said.
President Donald Trump announced Friday that the U.S. and China agreed to the first phase of a broader agreement under which the U.S. will reduce tariffs, calming fears at least temporarily of an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
To contact the reporter on this story: Simone Foxman in Doha at sfoxman4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bruce Stanley at bstanley5@bloomberg.net, Stanley James
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