Iran’s foreign minister has cancelled a visit with his Austrian counterpart to show displeasure that Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s government had flown the Israeli flag in Vienna in a show of solidarity.
Confirming a report in newspaper Die Presse, a spokeswoman for Schallenberg said, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was supposed to meet Alexander Schallenberg but had called off the trip.
The spokeswoman said, they regret this and take note of it, but for them it is as clear as day that when Hamas fires more than 2,000 rockets at civilian targets in Israel then they would will not remain silent.
In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told the semi-official news agency ISNA that Zarif did not consider the trip beneficial in these circumstances, and therefore the travel arrangements were not finalised.
Hamas is the Islamist group that runs Gaza. Israel has pummelled Gaza with air strikes and Palestinian militants have launched rocket barrages at Israel in the worst escalation of violence in years.
Kurz, who is firmly pro-Israel, had called flying the Israeli flag over the federal chancellery on Friday a mark of solidarity amid the violent clashes. But Abbas Araqchi, who heads the Iranian delegation at the Vienna talks, criticised the move.
The dispute comes during talks in Vienna to try to revive a 2015 accord with western powers in which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from sanctions. Former U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, prompting Iran to begin violating its terms.
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