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Top security official: US call for talks malevolent

1 Jun 2019 - 18:16


FNA - Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani underlined that Tehran has come to the conclusion that Washington is after talks not for the sake of conflict resolution, but for exerting more pressure, adding that the US does not deserve to be joined at a negotiating table.

Shamkhani said, on Thursday night in an interview with Al-Mayadeen network, that the US government does not deserve to be negotiated with because they consider negotiation as part of exerting pressure and not a way to solve the problems.

"The Iranian nation has come to believe that Americans do not negotiate to resolve problems,” he added.

The senior Iranian official highlighted that the US government must compensate for its past violations of commitments and all the damage to the Iranian people before speaking of new negotiations.

He said the United States will use its full potential for psychological warfare before any negotiation.

Addressing a group of university professors, academic elites and researchers in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei dismissed any possibility for Iran to negotiate on its defense capability.

He referred to escalating pressures from the US to bring Iran back to the table of negotiations, and stressed, "By returning to the negotiation table, they mean we negotiate with the US. We will not negotiate with US officials. Because there is no point negotiating and it is detrimental."

The Supreme Leader assured his audience that Iran welcomes negotiations with any other governments, and asserted, "Otherwise we have no problems negotiating with others or with Europeans. In negotiating with others and with Europeans, our only concern is the issue to be negotiated."

Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that the Islamic Republic will never trade its core values, and maintained, "We will not negotiate on the core issues of the Revolution. Negotiations on this issue implies trading; that is, they mean we give up on our defensive capabilities. We will not negotiate our military capability."

The Supreme Leader described negotiations as a pretext the United States uses to pressure Iran, and held, "The US tactic is to enhance their strategy of pressuring Iran. They want to cash in on the pressures through negotiation."

"The US targets assets of a country by pressuring it; to further their goal, they employ pressure" as a means. They also have a tactic and that is negotiation," he said.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi announced that it is in no talks with Washington and sees no perspective for such negotiations, dismissing media speculations that certain countries are mediating between the two countries.

“We do not have any negotiations with the US. We were in talks (i.e. in line with implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal). The US was in the talks but they ended it through their illegal withdrawal. We do not see any perspective for negotiations," he underlined.

He noted that Iran has always given diplomacy a chance, but meantime, underlined that this does not mean that Tehran has pinned hope on Europe.

"Europe should be committed to its undertakings under the nuclear deal," Mousavi said.


Story Code: 350824

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The Iran Project
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