Iran Tells Trump: Don't Wait for Us to Pick Up the Phone

By Golnar Motevalli in Tehran

Iranian officials rebuffed President Donald Trump’s suggestion that they call him to try to defuse frictions as the U.S. ratcheted up its actions against Tehran.

Several top Iranian aides and lawmakers predicted Sunday that the current tensions wouldn’t lead to war, calling the U.S. deployment of an aircraft carrier, warship, bomber jets and missile defenses to the Middle East a propaganda stunt. Antagonism between the countries, already high, has worsened this month since Trump eliminated exceptions to U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. The Islamic Republic responded by threatening to scale back its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Trump has not only shown that he has no respect for the signature of the previous U.S. government but that he’s willing to violate UN Security Council resolutions and other international agreements,” said Kamal Kharazi, the head of a council that advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Islamic Students’ News Agency.

Hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated Trump’s offer to chat to try to sort out differences. The U.S. has claimed, with no details, that Iran has been mobilizing proxies in Iraq and Syria to attack its forces, and its new deployments have stirred talk of war.

“The Americans know that no other war will bring about their defeat to such an extent and that’s why there won’t be a war, because war is not part of the U.S. strategy,” Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of Iran’s parliamentary commission for national security and foreign affairs, said in a speech before lawmakers, according to ISNA.

“Nobody is going to call Trump, and eventually the Americans will be forced to raise the issue of negotiations with Iran in a serious way,” he added.

Trump has made confronting Iran the linchpin of his Middle East policy, and his withdrawal from the nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions meant to choke off Iranian oil exports and access to international banks has pounded the Islamic Republic’s economy. Tehran responded to the U.S. removal of sanctions waivers and the new military deployments by threatening to stop abiding by the nuclear deal’s limitations on uranium enrichment if Europe doesn’t remove obstacles to foreign investment into Iran and ease the flow of Iranian oil within 60 days.

While Iran has always denied its nuclear program had a military component, its uranium enrichment activities had been controversial because Western powers said it could potentially be used in bombmaking, so the threat to abandon limits drew another round of U.S. sanctions, this time on Iranian metals.

Kharazi said Europe could show its willingness to keep the nuclear accord alive by making a trade channel for Iran operational. But the economic sanctions Trump imposed last year have made it tough, if not impossible, for European companies and banks to risk defying the U.S. and getting caught in its sanctions net.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Leader Urges Iraq to Demand US Withdraw Troops

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iraq to demand US troops leave "as soon as possible", warning that Washington is plotting to remove the Iraqi government.

The remarks came during a visit to Tehran on Saturday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose country is under pressure from the United States to distance itself from Iran.

"You should take actions to make sure the Americans withdraw their troops from Iraq as soon as possible because wherever they have had an enduring presence, forcing them out has become problematic," Khamenei told Abdel Mahdi.

"The current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US desires; they plot to remove them from the political scene of Iraq," he said, according to his official website.

Abdel Mahdi, on his first official trip to Iran, also met Saturday with President Hassan Rouhani, who visited Iraq last month.

Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbor, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and hit Tehran with sanctions. 

Iran has close but complicated ties with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups.

The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein.

Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk.

Tehran dispatched "military advisors" and equipment overnight along with the Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders.

Terrorism Blacklist

According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington is planning to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, an unprecedented move that would escalate tensions between the two countries.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday.

But it said that the Pentagon and the CIA were concerned the move would increase risks for US troops without doing much more to damage the Iranian economy.

Iran's parliament has vowed to retaliate by passing an urgent bill putting American troops on a terrorism blacklist alongside the Islamic State group, the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.

“Even though we believe one should not play along with America's extreme acts, the reality is that we must retaliate," the head of Iran's influential national security and foreign policy commission, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told ISNA.

A statement signed by a majority of MPs in support of the bill said any action against Iran's national security and its armed forces was "crossing a red line" and the US administration would "regret" its decision. 

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the new system.

Designating the Guards as a terrorist organization would "effectively be a service to terrorists," Falahatpisheh said, since they have "the biggest role in combatting terrorism" in the region.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Says Talks With Trump Would be 'Humiliation'

Skepticism was rife in Iran on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump offered talks, with one lawmaker saying negotiations would be a "humiliation."

The country's top leaders did not give an immediate response to Trump's statement a day earlier that he would meet them "any time" without preconditions.

But several public figures said it was impossible to imagine negotiations with Washington after it tore up the 2015 nuclear deal in May. 

"With the contemptuous statements (Trump) addressed to Iran, the idea of negotiating is inconceivable. It would be a humiliation," said Ali Motahari, deputy speaker of parliament, according to the conservative Fars News. 

"America is not trustworthy. After it arrogantly and unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement, how can it be trusted?" added Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, according to Fars.

The US is set to start reimposing full sanctions on Iran from August 6—a move that has already contributed to a major currency crisis with the rial losing two-thirds of its value in six months.

Only last week, Trump fired off an all-caps tirade at his counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Twitter, warning of untold "suffering" if Iran continued to threaten the US. 

Many in Iran are therefore suspicious of his latest volte-face.  

"We cannot negotiate with someone who violates international commitments, threatens to destroy countries, and constantly changes his position," said analyst Mohammad Marandi, of the University of Tehran, who was part of the nuclear negotiating team. 

Some officials remained more receptive. 

"Negotiations with the United States must not be a taboo," said Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of parliament's foreign affairs commission, in an interview with the semi-official ISNA news agency. 

"Trump understands that he does not have the capacity to wage war with Iran, but due to historic mistrust, diplomatic ties have been destroyed," said Falahatpisheh, adding that this left no choice but to work towards reducing tensions.

Motahari added that hardliners, who have long opposed any rapprochement with the US, share the blame for the collapse of the nuclear deal.

"If the whole Iranian system had worked to implement this agreement, today we would be witnessing the presence of European companies in Iran and their investments, and even Trump would not be able to withdraw so easily from the deal," he said.  

"But from the start one part of the system did not want the agreement to work."
   
'Maybe an opportunity'

On the streets of Tehran, meanwhile, the focus remained resolutely on Iran's domestic economic difficulties. 

"All of us believe that Trump is the enemy of Iran and Iranian people. But now maybe Trump wants to give the Iranian people an opportunity and, God willing, it could be a way to get past our disastrous situation," added Hushiar, an office manager in her 50s. 

Many Iranians find it hard to believe that the man who is trying to destroy their economy, and has banned them from flying to the US, can be trusted. 

"If they are honest in their words that they want to have negotiations with us without any preconditions, at least they should stay in the JCPOA (nuclear deal) or they should let us get the benefits of European trade," said Morteza Mehdian, a software engineer in his 20s. 

"But the reality is this man is a liar and we cannot trust his word."

For now, this is also the official line, with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying earlier this month that talking to Trump would be "useless."

Foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi on Monday said "there is no possibility for talks", ahead of Trump's statement.

"Washington reveals its untrustworthy nature day by day," Ghasemi said, according to the conservative-aligned Mehr news agency. 

The Trump administration says its "maximum pressure campaign" is designed to force Iran into a new deal that goes beyond limiting its nuclear program and includes curbs to its regional behavior and missile program.

Photo Credit: Mohtahari Twitter