THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, August 2, 2019 |A
to attend, EU officials said.
The French Foreign Minis-
try on Thursday echoed the
EU’s concern and said it was
in regular contact with Mr. Za-
rif to de-escalate tensions and
ensure Iran was in compliance
with the nuclear accord.
“We believe all diplomatic
channels must remain open,
especially in the current con-
text of increased tension,” the
ministry said.
Russia, which is part of the
nuclear accord and has fought
alongside Iran in Syria to back
President Bashar al-Assad,
also criticized the U.S. move,
saying a broad spectrum of
U.S. sanctions had failed to
bring Iran to heel.
“The U.S. is driving itself
into a corner,” foreign-ministry
spokeswoman Maria
Zakharova said. “It seems the
only thing the Americans can
do is sanction.” Russia regu-
larly disregards U.S. unilateral
sanctions and gave no indica-tion it would cut ties with
Iran’s top diplomat. The Trump
administration didn’t respond
to a request for comment on
the international views.
Tensions between Iran and
the U.S. have soared since Mr.
Trump withdrew from the nu-
clear accord last year and im-
posed new sanctions.
Iran has in recent months
launched a test missile, seized
a British oil tanker in the
Strait of Hormuz and shot
down a U.S. military drone.
The U.S. has also accused Iran
of attacking commercial ships
in the region and orchestrat-
ing Yemeni rebel attacks on
Saudi oil facilities, which Teh-
ran has denied.
The Trump administration
has said the aim of its pres-
sure campaign is to push Teh-
ran to negotiate a broader
deal encompassing not only its
nuclear program but also its
conventional military activity.
When Mr. Zarif visited NewYork in July, he met with Sen.
Rand Paul (R., Ky.), who carried
a message from Mr. Trump
that the U.S. wasn’t seeking
armed conflict, several people
briefed on the meeting said.
Two weeks later, sanctions
were imposed on Mr. Zarif.
“It really puts the incoher-
ence of the administration on
full display,” said Ali Vaez, di-
rector of the Iran Project at
the International Crisis Group.
Mr. Paul on Wednesday said
in a Twitter post: “If you sanc-
tion diplomats, you’ll have less
diplomacy.”
Other lawmakers, including
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.),
backed the sanctions. Mr. Gra-
ham called the diplomat a sup-
porter of terrorism.
Meanwhile, the U.S. also
made a small diplomatic over-
ture to Iran on Wednesday, re-
newing waivers that allow
countries to work with Iran on
civilian nuclear projects. Euro-
pean officials have in recentweeks said they were more
worried about these nuclear
waivers than about sanctions
on Mr. Zarif, fearing that if
Washington canceled them,
Iran would make fresh moves
to step up its nuclear program.
Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani in a speech on Thurs-
day called the U.S. decision to
impose sanctions on his top dip-
lomat “childish,” saying it un-
dermined the prospect of talks
to defuse escalating tensions.
Asked how the U.S. plans to
get Iran to the negotiating ta-
ble when imposing sanctions
on its top diplomat, Brian
Hook, the State Department’s
Iran envoy, said: “When the
regime decides it’s ready to
return to the negotiating ta-
ble, we’re confident there’s
more than one person they
can send.”
—Thomas Grove in Moscow,
Laurence Norman in Brussels
and Stacy Meichtry in Paris
contributed to this article.Saudi Arabia has approved a
new law allowing women to
travel abroad without a male
guardian’s permission, senior
Saudi officials said, ending re-
strictions that had been a sym-
bol of the kingdom’s ultracon-
servative rule.
The new laws, seen by The
Wall Street Journal, allow
women over the age of 21 to
obtain passports and leave the
country without securing the
consent of a guardian.
Senior Saudi officials said
the new rules would be an-
nounced Friday by the king-
dom’s official legal record, the
Gazette. The publication
tweeted Thursday that amend-
ments to travel rules, the labor
law and civil-status law would
be included in its next edition
on Friday. They will take effect
90 days after they are pub-
lished, likely in late October.
The move to change guard-
ianship follows international
scrutiny after a series of young
Saudi women fled the country
and sought asylum, complain-
ing the kingdom’s laws and cus-
toms made them slaves to male
relatives.
Human-rights groups say the
guardianship laws turn women
into second-class citizens, de-
priving them of basic human
and social rights and enabling
abuse against them.
The custom of giving women
a male guardian for life is a
deeply held tradition in Saudi
Arabia and is unlikely to change
overnight for the large majority
of the country despite the law.
Even with the new law,
Saudi women must get a guard-
ian’s consent to marry, leave
prison or even exit a shelter for
abuse victims. Though other
Muslimcountrieshave guard-
ianship systems, none have
gone as far to codify it into law
as Saudi Arabia.BYSUMMERSAIDSaudis
Ease Travel
Rules for
Women
WORLD NEWS
U.S. allies criticized Wash-
ington’s decision to impose
sanctions on Iran’s foreign
minister and vowed to keep
their own diplomatic channels
open, in the latest spat be-
tween the White House and
European countries over how
to deal with Tehran.
Even as it has said it is will-
ing to meet with Iran without
preconditions, the Trump ad-
ministration on Wednesday
blacklisted Iranian Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif—freezing
any assets he might have in the
U.S. and potentially restricting
his travel across U.S. borders.
Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin said Mr. Zarif was tar-
geted for implementing the
“reckless agenda” of Iranian Su-
preme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and for overseeing a
ministry that coordinates with
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps, which the U.S. designated
a terrorist entity this year.
Mr. Zarif’s Ministry of For-
eign Affairs and its high-rank-
ing officials also have engaged
in and funded efforts to influ-
ence elections and bribed for-
eign officials to release Revo-
lutionary Guard members from
jail, Treasury said.
“The U.S. is sending a clear
message to the Iranian regime
that its recent behavior is
completely unacceptable,” Mr.
Mnuchin said on Wednesday.
The European Union, which
is working with Iran, Russia
and China to keep alive the
2015 international nuclear ac-
cord President Trump exited
last year, said it would continue
to meet Iran’s top diplomat.
EU foreign ministers are ex-
pected to meet in coming
weeks, and Mr. Zarif is meant
BySune Engel
Rasmussen
in Washington and
Isabel Colesin BeirutNew Iran Curbs Rankle U.S. Allies
Sanctions against
foreign minister drive
new wedge between
Europe, White House
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday called the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on Foreign Minister Javad Zarif ‘childish.’IRANIAN PRESIDENCY/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCKJoinusfortheifthannualWomenintheWorkplace,a
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