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Iran says Zarif skips Davos over programme change
TEHRAN, Jan 20, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Iran said Monday its Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif will skip this week’s World Economic Forum after
organisers changed the event he had been planning to take part in.
The annual summit, which kicks off in the Swiss resort of Davos on
Tuesday, has been overshadowed by escalating tensions between Iran and its
arch foe the United States.
Zarif had been scheduled to attend the gathering after receiving a
personal invitation, his ministry said.
“They changed the original programme they had for him, the programme that
had been agreed upon, and came up with something else,” said spokesman Abbas
Mousavi.
“Either way, this trip unfortunately will not happen,” he told a news
conference in Tehran.
The annual gathering of global movers and shakers in the Swiss Alps begins
on Tuesday and lasts four days.
But Zarif’s absence removes any chance of a showdown with US President
Donald Trump.
Tehran and Washington have been sworn enemies since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution, but tensions have worsened since 2018 when Trump withdrew from
the so-called Iran nuclear deal.
The two countries appeared to be on the brink of war after a US drone
strike killed one of the Islamic republic’s top military commanders, Qasem
Soleimani, on January 3.
Iran hit back five days later by firing missiles at US troops stationed in
neighbouring Iraq.
Hours later, when it had been braced for US retaliation, Iran’s armed
forces accidentally downed a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 people on
board.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1534 hrs