Trump right to say US military 'has no business' in Gulf: Iran's Zarif

[TEHRAN] US President Donald Trump was right to say US forces have "no business" in the Gulf, Iran's foreign minister said on Monday after Mr Trump told other countries to protect their own oil shipments.

Mohammad Javad Zarif also said Mr Trump and those around him pushing a hard line on Iran "despise diplomacy", in his first post on Twitter after he himself was targeted in a new batch of US sanctions.

Mr Trump "is 100 per cent right that the US military has no business in the Persian Gulf. Removal of its forces is fully in line with interests of US and the world," Mr Zarif tweeted.

"But it's now clear that the #B_Team is not concerned with US interests-they despise diplomacy, and thirst for war," he added, referring to US national security adviser John Bolton and others.

Mr Zarif was among those targeted by new US sanctions on Monday, which also extend to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior military personnel.

In a pair of tweets on Monday, Mr Trump told other countries to protect their own Gulf oil shipments and declared the US has only limited strategic interest in the "dangerous" region.

"Why are we protecting the shipping lanes for other countries (many years) for zero compensation," Mr Trump said on Twitter.

"All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been a dangerous journey. We don't even need to be there... ", the US president said.

AFP