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The purported wreckage of the American drone is seen displayed by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, Iran June 21, 2019. /VCG Photo
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday the U.S. Middle East peace plan that is set to be presented at an international conference in Bahrain this week is "shameful" and "doomed to failure".
"This conference and the sale of Palestine will lead nowhere," Mousavi was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency.
The spokesman also criticized Andrew Murrison, Britain's minister for the Middle East, for his remarks on Sunday after a visit to Tehran. Murrison said Iran almost certainly bears responsibility for recent attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
"What [Murrison] said after the meetings was not constructive. It seems Britain is siding with America due to its domestic problems and Brexit crisis."
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi gives a press conference in the capital Tehran, May 28, 2019. /VCG Photo
Kamal Kharazi, head of the Strategic Council of Foreign Relations at Iran's Foreign Ministry, also called the talks with UK minister "repetitive" as Murrison had the "usual talking points".
These included saying a European payment mechanism to help Iran with U.S. sanctions "will soon become operational, that Britain has always supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and has its own problems with America ... such talks that have always been repetitive," Kharazi added.
The JCPOA is a multilateral 2015 nuclear deal that the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from in May last year.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have flared after Iran shot down a U.S. drone on Thursday.
A series of tweets written by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding a retaliatory attack on Iran are displayed on a computer screen in New York, U.S., June 21, 2019. /VCG Photo
Iran said the drone violated its airspace – a claim the U.S. denies – near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
In response, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would impose fresh sanctions on Iran but that he wanted to make a deal to bolster its flagging economy, an apparent move to defuse tensions following the drone downing.
While Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted a map on Sunday showing a previous border incident with a "spy drone" encroaching its airspace in late May.
He said the reconnaissance aircraft, a U.S.-made MQ9 Reaper - also widely used for carrying out military strikes - had encroached on Iranian territory on May 26 despite being sent several warnings.
(With input from Reuters, AFP)