Tehran, IRNA – Tehran says negotiations with Washington are held indirectly because direct talks have not been proven useful.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said that holding indirect talks is not unconventional.
“If we seek effective negotiations and are serious about diplomatic engagement, we must choose a method we are confident will yield results,” he said.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the US president’s special envoy for West Asia affairs, Steve Witkoff, led the first round of indirect talks between the two sides in the Omani capital of Muscat on Saturday. The talks focused on the nuclear issue and terminating Washington’s unlawful sanctions against Tehran.
Baqaei further said holding direct negotiations in circumstances where one side insists on using the language of force is “neither useful nor acceptable” to Iran.
He said Iran’s positions on the nuclear issue are clear, adding, “Our main issue is the termination of the cruel sanctions that have been imposed on Iran for decades, and this is our serious demand that we have raised and are pursuing.”
Araqchi set to visit Russia
Asked about Iran’s interaction with China and Russia on the nuclear issue, Baqaei said Tehran will continue to interact and consult with all members of the 2015 Iran deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the U.S. abandoned in 2018. “We believe that these interactions will be beneficial.”
He said that Araqchi will travel to Russia later this week and use this opportunity to discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks.
Baqaei was also asked about the level of coordination on the negotiations within the Islamic Republic, to which he said the coordination and coherence that exists regarding this issue at the highest level is “truly commendable.”
He said that the country’s lawmakers were also briefed both before and after the negotiations.
IAEA chief to visit Tehran this week
According to the spokesperson, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will visit Tehran later this week to discuss and make decisions on certain “logistics issues.”
He said the visit was planned before the Oman talks and is part of Iran’s normal interactions with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
Iran is open to American investors
On whether American businesspeople are able to invest in Iran, Baqaei said that Iran has never been an obstacle to economic cooperation and investment by other parties, including the U.S.
“This is the problem of America itself, which, by imposing complex, compact, and multi-layered laws, has deprived its own citizens of any economic dealings with Iran,” he said. “Therefore, it is a problem that the other party must think about and decide.”
European sanctions are unlawful
The senior Iranian diplomat was also asked to comment on Europe’s sanctions against the Islamic Republic. He said European countries use their own interpretation of human rights to target other countries with sanctions.
“These sanctions are illegal and we consider them unconstructive,” he added.
Israel is the root cause of regional insecurity
Elsewhere in his presser, Baqaei made clear that the indirect dialogue between Tehran and Washington cannot bring calm to the region, as the continued insecurity “stems from a deeply destructive actor called Israel.”
He cited the ongoing “genocide and killings” in occupied Palestine and described Israel as “the only entity recognized as apartheid by the UN” and the sole occupier of two regional countries’ territories.
He added that the Israeli regime’s atrocities are the root of regional tensions – something Western governments, he said, refuse to acknowledge while misplacing blame.
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