Iran Foreign Minister: If U.S. Wants New Nuclear Concessions, We Do Too
- 7 years ago
Iran Foreign Minister: If U.S. Wants New Nuclear Concessions, We Do Too
He described President Trump’s speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, in which Mr. Trump called the nuclear accord a one-sided embarrassment to the United States
that he may abandon, as "absurd." What the administration really wanted, Mr. Zarif said, was to keep the Iranian concessions while trying to extract more from Iran — but with no new concessions from the United States or other parties.
And the Iranian minister, who was harshly criticized in Iran for surrendering too much in the negotiation, said
that if the United States walked away from the accord, as Mr. Trump threatened, "Who would come and listen to you anymore?" With such a threat, he said, "The United States is sending the wrong signal." Iranian officials seem to be betting that Mr. Trump, for all his criticism of the accord, will not blow it up.
Mr. Zarif, who was educated in the United States, spoke with reporters, columnists and editorial writers for The New York Times, a day after he conferred privately with counterparts from the six countries
that negotiated the deal with Iran — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York.
21, 2017
Iran’s foreign minister rejected on Thursday any new negotiation with the United States over extending the length or conditions of the 2015 nuclear accord, saying
that Iran would talk about changing the accord only if every concession it made — including giving up nuclear fuel — were reconsidered.
Nonetheless, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Tillerson contend
that Iran has violated the "spirit" of the nuclear accord by continuing to sponsor groups that the United States regards as terrorist organizations, supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and pursuing cyber attacks against Iran’s Sunni Arab neighbors and the United States.
In an interview, the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said
that would mean Iran would retake possession of the stockpile of nuclear fuel it shipped to Russia when the accord took effect.
He described President Trump’s speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, in which Mr. Trump called the nuclear accord a one-sided embarrassment to the United States
that he may abandon, as "absurd." What the administration really wanted, Mr. Zarif said, was to keep the Iranian concessions while trying to extract more from Iran — but with no new concessions from the United States or other parties.
And the Iranian minister, who was harshly criticized in Iran for surrendering too much in the negotiation, said
that if the United States walked away from the accord, as Mr. Trump threatened, "Who would come and listen to you anymore?" With such a threat, he said, "The United States is sending the wrong signal." Iranian officials seem to be betting that Mr. Trump, for all his criticism of the accord, will not blow it up.
Mr. Zarif, who was educated in the United States, spoke with reporters, columnists and editorial writers for The New York Times, a day after he conferred privately with counterparts from the six countries
that negotiated the deal with Iran — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York.
21, 2017
Iran’s foreign minister rejected on Thursday any new negotiation with the United States over extending the length or conditions of the 2015 nuclear accord, saying
that Iran would talk about changing the accord only if every concession it made — including giving up nuclear fuel — were reconsidered.
Nonetheless, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Tillerson contend
that Iran has violated the "spirit" of the nuclear accord by continuing to sponsor groups that the United States regards as terrorist organizations, supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and pursuing cyber attacks against Iran’s Sunni Arab neighbors and the United States.
In an interview, the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said
that would mean Iran would retake possession of the stockpile of nuclear fuel it shipped to Russia when the accord took effect.