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In an interview with the US TODAY, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke about US-Iran relations and the Iran nuclear deal.
Neale Haynes and Jasper Colt, USA Today
On November 3, 2018, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, meets with American journalist TODAY, Kim Hjelmgaard, in Antalya, Turkey.(Photo: Neale Haynes for the USA TODAY & # 39; HUI)
ANTALYA, Turkey – As the Iranians were preparing for the full reinstatement of the economic sanctions imposed by the Trump government on Monday, their government said it would be ready to discuss with the US a new deal on nuclear nuclear if Washington changed its "approach" agreement, it dropped earlier this year.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's top diplomat, told the US TODAY in an exclusive interview this weekend that his government would consider a new diplomacy if there was "the foundation for a fruitful dialogue" on the Iranian nuclear reduction agreement. President Donald Trump in May pulled the United States from the 2015 Pact with the world powers and Iran. The other signatories of the agreement remained.
Zarif's comments provided a rare Iran's top officials said Tehran may consider joining the talks with Washington if certain diplomatic conditions are met.
"Mutual trust is not a necessity to start negotiations – mutual respect is a requirement," Zarif said in a 45-minute interview.
Iranians hold a sign showing a caricature of US President Donald J. Trump during an anti-American demonstration marking the 39th anniversary of the takeover of the US Embbady, in front of the former US embbady Teheran, Iran, November 4, 2018. (Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh, EPA-EFE)
The Trump Administration "does not believe in diplomacy – it believes in taxation," Zarif said in an interview Monday just before the White House. reimposed overwhelming economic sanctions on Iran's energy and banking sectors.
The administration said the sanctions, lifted under Iran's nuclear arms deal with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia and Germany, Barack Obama was president, aim to take more forceful measures to curb Tehran's nuclear program and its missile activity and the billions of dollars spent to fund terrorism and sow discord across the Middle East, Syria in Yemen.
An Iranian woman holds a poster of an Iranian general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as she pbades in front of a mural depicting a statue of Liberty in front of skull near the former embbady American Embbady in Tehran, Iran, November 4, 2018. (Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh, EPA-EFE)
The White House did not respond to a request for response to Zarif's remarks. The state department also declined to comment. But on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced: "The Iranian regime has a choice: it can either turn 180 degrees out of its illegal course of action and act like a normal country, or it can see its economy to collapse.We hope that a new agreement with Iran is possible. "
The Trump administration has sanctioned more than 700 Iranian banks, companies and individuals. It has granted exemptions from oil sanctions to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. This will allow them to continue buying Iranian oil.
As the US's "harshest" sanctions take effect, Iranian President Hbadan Rouhani said on Monday that the country is facing a "war situation" and has promised that Iran will "sell" its oil . The Iranian army has announced that it will hold new defense exercises to prove its capabilities.
"Horrible, unilateral Iranian nuclear deal"
At a mid-term congressional rally in Georgia on Sunday, Mr. Trump said that "Iran was a very different country" after withdrawing the United States "from the horrible agreement and unilateral on Iran's nuclear power ". Trump added, "When I came in, it was just a matter of time, it would take them to conquer the entire Middle East."
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A previous round of sanctions imposed by Washington, affecting Iran's access to US dollars and its ability to trade certain commodities, came into effect in August.
While the US government insists that sanctions do not target humanitarian goods, in a context of monetary crisis and withdrawal of international companies from Iran, essential goods have become more expensive and some vital drugs are not more available.
"Mutual respect starts with respect for yourself, your signature, your own word," said Zarif, referring to various international agreements that Trump has abandoned or renegotiated since taking office.
The Iranian Foreign Minister met with the United States today in Antalya, a seaside resort on the southwestern Mediterranean coast in Turkey, where he was attending an economic conference. He explained how the already weakened Iranian economy would face the sanctions and the attempts of the European leaders to preserve the agreement without Washington.
"Iran is used to sanctions"
"The current US administration is essentially asking all members of the international community to violate international law" by forcing them to break an agreement enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution, Zarif added, adding that " Iran is accustomed to US sanctions, and we have had them for almost 39 years. "
Zarif also discussed Iran's reputation as a bad actor in the Middle East region and its vision of Saudi Arabia, its longtime regional foe. The Saudis have been subjected to scrutiny in recent weeksfollowingThe badbadination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, committed by Riyadh State agents in Istanbul, Turkey.
"Unfortunately, one person was murdered very brutally," said Zarif, referring to the murder of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate. "Who created the Taliban?" Who were the citizens who participated in the September 11 attacks? Who supported the group of Islamic states in Syria? Who bombs Yemeni civilians? Who kidnapped (Prime Minister of Lebanon) and who? 39? Kept in captivity for three weeks? … See all these realities, "he added, claiming the involvement of Saudi Arabia in these episodes, which did not all proved conclusively. "The United States not only made the wrong choice (being a Saudi ally), but the West sent the wrong signal." Basically, literally, he told the Saudi royal family that he was possible to be murdered. "
Zarif noted that Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal had come against the objections of the closest allies to the United States – and despite repeated confirmation from the International Agency Atomic Energy, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, that Iran had complied with the terms of the agreement by reducing uranium enrichment.
"Let someone just say," I do not like that. I want to go because I think I'm powerful enough to do it. "What is the guarantee that they will not do it again in the next agreement?" Zarif said in the interview.
Back to the negotiating table?
"It does not have to be a different administration, but it requires a different approach," said Zarif, referring to what it would take for Iran to join the US talks.
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of Bourse & Bazaar, a media company that supports business diplomacy between Europe and Iran, said about the Foreign Minister's comment: "Zarif does not say things he does not want to indicate where is Iran's thinking … What's important is he saying it on the eve of the re-enforcement of sanctions … One can only not say that Iran begs the United States to return to the agreement, but it is clear that diplomacy is underlying, that Iran is open to this if the United States is going to show reasonable respect for the JCPOA (nuclear agreement). "
In an interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States supports the Iranian people, adding that the sanctions were "to ensure that the perverse behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran be changed ".
"It's the goal, the mission, and that's what we're going to achieve on behalf of the president," said Pompeo, the top US diplomat.
Trump said in recent weeks that he was open to talks with Iranian leaders, without preconditions, about the prospect of a new nuclear deal – an offer that Iran has has always been publicly rejected since Rouhani's remarks in August, seeking to rely on Europe's help to keep the nuclear deal alive.
"We have an agreement with the United States, not a two-page deal, but a 150-page deal, and the United States has decided to split it," Zarif said.
He then announced a series of agreements that the Trump administration had withdrawn or required to be renegotiated, from the Paris Climate Change Agreements to the North American Free Trade Agreement to a historic arms control agreement reached with the United States. the Reagan Republic in the 1980s.
"It's not our fault that the United States is not a reliable trading partner," said Zarif during his interview. "This is a problem that the international community is facing."
USA TODAY has repeatedly insisted in Mr. Zarif's interview to clarify what he meant by a "different approach" and whether it involved a different President of Trump.
"I think human beings can change, this administration can take a different approach," he said, refusing to answer the question directly.
His only concession: "We are ready to wait for this approach."
Other key points of the interview include:
The impact of sanctions on Iran
"(Iran) provides subsidies to ensure that people's basic needs are covered by previous prices, but no one claims that economic sanctions do not hurt." Economic sanctions are still hurting, but they do not hurt. Do not achieve the political objectives that they aim for. "
If Europe's efforts to save the nuclear deal were doomed to failure
"The" special vehicle "(a financial mechanism developed by European officials to allow commercial and banking services with Iran to continue despite sanctions) is a measure specifically designed as the first step to deal with the Iranian situation, but its ultimate goal It is not simply a matter of isolating trade between Iran and Europe, or between Iran and its third partners, but in reality (for Europe) 'isolate from the pressure exerted by the United States.'
If the Iranian oil industry will be paralyzed
"Trump and his administration said they would put Iran's oil exports to zero (because of the sanctions on its exports)." We said it was a dream that would never come true. We have now seen that we were right (because the United States has issued oil export exemptions to eight countries that still wish to continue buying Iranian oil). "
How Iran perceives midterms and American politics
"We do not base any hope on (the congressional elections) nor on 2020 (when there will be a US presidential election.) What sets Iran apart from some US customers in the region, is that we have survived not only the United States, but against the United States … Iran has already been subjected to Democratic and Republican administrations … All hostile. "
More: An American journalist had a rare access last summer to a report in Iran
More: The controversial history of the United States in Iran leads to a mixture of anger, wonder and fatigue
Contributed by David Jackson and Deirdre Shesgreen
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