Iran Vows to Take 'Any Opportunity' to Lift US Sanctions

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani vowed Wednesday to take "any opportunity" to lift US sanctions against Tehran, following President Donald Trump's defeat by Democratic election rival Joe Biden.

While the outgoing Trump has declared Iran an arch-foe and sought to isolate it globally, president-elect Biden has proposed to offer Iran a "credible path back to diplomacy".

"Our aim is to lift the pressure of sanctions from the shoulders of our people," Rouhani said in televised remarks during a weekly cabinet meeting.

"Wherever this favourable opportunity arises we will act on our responsibilities. No one should miss any opportunity."

"National security and national interests are not factional and partisan issues," Rouhani added, after conservatives blasted his reformist and moderate coalition for its "over-excitement" for re-engagement with the United States.

Decades-old tensions between Tehran and Washington escalated after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed, then reinforced, crippling sanctions.

Those moves torpedoed the deal, Rouhani's signature foreign policy achievement, and bolstered conservatives who argue that the US cannot be trusted.

The measures have all but deprived Iran of vital oil revenues and isolated its banks, triggering a harsh recession and slashing the value of the rial. Rouhani acknowledged Biden's conciliatory remarks during his campaign but said Tehran was prepared for sanctions to remain in place.

"They can choose a new path. And if they do not want to, it is their choice," he told the cabinet.

He noted that his administration had devised its policies on the assumption Trump would stay in office.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week that the result of the US election would have "no effect" on Tehran's policies towards Washington.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Says Still Ready for Talks if US Lifts Sanctions

Iran is willing to return to the negotiating table if the United States first drops sanctions, President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday, after a fuel price hike sparked deadly violence ahead of elections.

European countries have been pushing for talks with Iran to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal that has all but collapsed since the United States withdrew and reimposed sanctions last year.

Rouhani has long demanded the lifting of US sanctions for Iran's return to talks under the auspices of the so-called P5+1 that reached the deal—the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

His latest statement comes after a shock announcement in mid-November that the price of petrol was going up by as much as 200 percent triggered demonstrations across Iran that turned deadly.

The decision came at a sensitive time ahead of a February parliamentary election.

It is a rise many Iranians can ill afford in a country whose sanctions-hit economy is expected to contract by 9.5 percent this year.

"If they are prepared to put aside the sanctions, we are ready to talk and negotiate, even at the level of heads of the 5+1 countries," Rouhani said in remarks aired live on state television.

"We are under sanctions. This situation... is (because of) incitement by the Zionists and the region's reactionary," he said, referring to Iran's regional rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia.

His remarks came after France and Germany raised the possibility of triggering a mechanism in the deal that could lead to the reimposition of UN sanctions.

‘Cruel Act'

Rouhani described the sanctions as "a cruel act by the White House".

"We have no choice but to resist and persevere," he said. "At the same time, we have not closed the window for negotiations.

"I tell the nation of Iran that any time America is prepared to lift and put aside its wrong, cruel, unlawful, incorrect, terrorist sanctions, immediately the heads of 5+1 can meet and we have no problem."

The landmark 2015 deal gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

It has been at risk of falling apart since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in May last year and reimposed sanctions.

Known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it was agreed between Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.

Twelve months on from the US pullout, Iran began reducing its commitments to the deal hoping to win concessions from those still party to the accord.

Its latest step back came last month, when engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into mothballed enrichment centrifuges at the underground Fordow plant south of Tehran.

In his remarks, Rouhani said his government strived to remain in the nuclear deal despite "pressures" that were on it.

‘Utter Lies'

The statement comes after angry demonstrations erupted against a shock decision to raise petrol prices on November 15.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International said on Monday that at least 208 people were killed in a crackdown on the demonstrations, citing what it called credible reports.

Iran's judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili on Tuesday rejected as "utter lies" unofficial casualty figures given by "hostile groups" based abroad.

On Monday night, state television charged that foreign media had been "hyping up" the death toll.

It said "the security forces had no choice but to resort to authoritative and tough confrontation... and a number of rioters were killed".

The unrest started hours after it was announced that the price of petrol would rise from 10,000 rials per litre to 15,000 (12 US cents) for the first 60 litres, and to 30,000 rials for any extra fuel bought after that each month.

Rouhani has said proceeds would go to the most needy.

State news agency IRNA said the payments had since been made in three installments between November 18 and 23.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Rejects French Idea of Re-Opening Nuclear Talks

Iran on Friday rejected an idea mooted by France of re-opening nuclear talks, warning that seeking to broaden an existing landmark treaty could lead to its collapse.

President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that his goal of “regional peace” would require new negotiations, adding that Paris aimed to rein in Iran’s nuclear and ballistics activities and its regional influence.

He made the comments at a press conference with US President Donald Trump, who last year withdrew from the multi-lateral agreement known as the JCPOA.

But Tehran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi warned Friday that “bringing up issues that are beyond the JCPOA does not help in saving the JCPOA, but will instead cause increased distrust among the remaining parties” to the deal.

European leaders, bitterly angered by Trump’s pullout from the deal in May last year, have struggled to find ways to salvage it in the face of Washington’s re-instatement of tough sanctions.

In a statement on the foreign ministry’s website, Mousavi said European parties to the deal had been “incapable of acting upon their commitments”.

Under such circumstances, he said, making new demands would “only help America in nearing its objective—the collapse of the JCPOA.”

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was an agreement between world powers including France and the United States, offering Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Iran had until recently remained in full compliance with the deal, but with the remaining parties struggling to bypass US sanctions, Tehran has reaped few of the promised benefits.

In May, it dropped its adherence to certain limits on enrichment activities under the accord and gave an ultimatum to the remaining parties that it would ditch other commitments unless they delivered on promised sanctions relief.

Trump’s administration has also sought tighter controls on Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.

In comments published by the Washington Times on Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that Iran bring its missile programme “back inside a set of constraints” laid out in UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back, tweeting that the US had “violated” the same resolution by withdrawing from the nuclear deal and was “in no position to push a conceited interpretation of its missile provision”.

He pointed out that the resolution called on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles DESIGNED to be capable of delivering NUCLEAR weapons.”

“Our missiles are not ‘designed’ for nukes, which we’re not developing,” he said.

Photo: IRNA

Trump Says 'Open to Talk' to Iran

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is open to talks with the Iranian leadership, amid mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"What I would like to see with Iran, I would like to see them call me," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"We don't want them to have nuclear weapons—not much to ask," he said.

The US president also launched an extraordinary attack on John Kerry, claiming that the former US secretary of state was in touch with Iranian leaders and had told them "not to call."

“John Kerry, he speaks to them a lot," Trump said. "He tells them not to call.

Trump claimed this was a violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits private US citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.

"Frankly, he should be prosecuted on that," he said.

"But they should call," Trump said. "If they do, we are open to talk to them.

The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier to the Gulf amid the rising tensions, but Trump said Washington was not looking for a conflict with Tehran. 

"I want them to be strong and great, to have a great economy," Trump said, adding that "we can make a fair deal."

Prosecutions of US citizens under the Logan Act, which was enacted in 1799, are extremely rare.

Kerry, as secretary of state under president Barack Obama, was involved in negotiating the agreement aimed at curtailing Tehran's nuclear program.

The 2015 JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, between Iran and world powers including the EU offered sanctions relief to the Islamic republic for scaling back its nuclear program.

Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in May of last year and reinstated unilateral economic sanctions.

On Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would no longer implement parts of the deal and threatened to go further if the remaining members of the pact failed to deliver sanctions relief to counterbalance Trump's renewed assault on the Iranian economy within 60 days.

A spokesman for Kerry condemned Trump's remarks as "theater."

"Everything President Trump said today is simply wrong, end of story," the spokesman said in a statement. 

"He's wrong about the facts, wrong about the law, and sadly he's been wrong about how to use diplomacy to keep America safe.

"Secretary Kerry helped negotiate a nuclear agreement that worked to solve an intractable problem," the statement said. "The world supported it then and supports it still.

"We'd hope the President would focus on solving foreign policy problems for America instead of attacking his predecessors for theater." 

Photo: Wikicommons