Tehran, IRNA – Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, the CEO of IRNA, says Iran and its Arab neighbors are adopting a different and “forward-moving” approach to negotiations between Iran and the United States over a new deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, as compared with a 2015 agreement officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Jaberi-Ansari was speaking with IRNA 24 of the Islamic Republic News Agency on Saturday after Iran and the U.S. concluded a second round of indirect negotiations in Italy and agreed to hold more talks in the coming days.
Compared with the JCPOA, IRNA’s CEO said, “a kind of forward movement” has taken place on the part of both Iran and the Arab side, including the southern and western neighbors of Iran, with regard to the current nuclear negotiations.
Jaberi-Ansari, who was a top diplomat at the Foreign Ministry himself, said he believed that when it comes to diplomacy, there is a reality and there is an image of that reality.
In the case of the JCPOA, Iran considered the 2015 deal beneficial to the entire region, but some of Iran’s neighboring countries had a different image of the reality of Iran’s policy, he said. That image made those countries view Iran as seeking to only pursue a solution for itself, which based on their mistaken perception, could harm them, he added.
“The result was that the Arab countries, or more precisely what I call the official Arab system, aligned themselves with Israel, directly or indirectly, acting like the two blades of a pair of scissors in dealing with the JCPOA,” Jaberi-Ansari said, adding that both Israel and some Arab countries initially sought to prevent the JCPOA from materializing, using their influence, capabilities, lobbying, and wealth.
After the JCPOA was clinched, Israel and those Arab countries worked to undermine the agreement, with their attempt being facilitated during the first term of U.S. President Donald Trump, who withdrew Washington from the JCPOA in 2018, IRNA’s CEO said.
Further in his remarks, Jaberi-Ansari explained how Iran and the Arab countries are acting differently as Tehran and Washington are engaged in talks on a new deal.
It seems that Iran is now more seriously engaged in elaborating on its policies and the realities as Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, his deputies and colleagues, and Iranian ambassadors to regional countries are making close contacts to convey developments to leaders and officials of the Arab countries in order to prevent a reversed image from being shaped for them, Jaberi-Ansari said.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other countries are also learning from the experience of the past few years that if developments move toward conflict, and soft confrontations turn into hard ones, Iran and the other side to the conflict would not be the only ones to suffer, and the entire region would definitely be harmed, he added.
Jaberi-Ansari said, to him, Arab countries seem to be approaching Iran’s nuclear talks in a more mature way.
Phone calls by high-level Arab officials to Iranian officials in recent days and the Saudi defense minister’s trip to Tehran earlier this week are some examples of that approach, he added.
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