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Araghchi: Tehran-Washington ties can be managed despite distrust in US
Araghchi said in an interview with Dariush Sajjadi, a political US-based analyst, that the Islamic Republic has serious differences in opinion with the US, most of which relate to its domineering behavior.
“As long as the US maintains its domineering nature and as long as the Islamic Republic insists on not yielding to domination, the problem between us will not be resolved.”
However, he said that if Washington puts aside its hegemonic attitude toward Iran, “We can engage with each other.”
Araghchi also pointed to Iran’s lack of trust in the US, especially after several rounds of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, saying that the problem is rooted in “bitter experiences”.
“We negotiated once with the Americans, reached an agreement, implemented it honestly; they walked away and the sanctions came back. Again, under the late (Iranian) president Raisi, we negotiated, reached a (nuclear) agreement; the prisoners were freed, our funds in South Korea were released, but they were blocked in Qatar and were never used.”
“This year, we entered negotiations; in the middle of the talks, we came under attack, the US backed the (Israel) aggression, and then joined it. In New York, there was an opportunity for negotiation; they had utterly unreasonable and illogical demands — for instance, that we hand over all our enriched materials (uranium) while they would just extend snapback mechanism for six months. What rational person would accept that?” the Iranian foreign minister said.
Iran has repeatedly said that if the US is ready to negotiate from an equal footing, with a sincere approach, for an agreement based on mutual respect, “We have never abandoned diplomacy,” Araghchi said.
He underlined that Iran will not back down from the rights of the Iranian people, nor will put up with domination and coercion against the Iranians.
Relations between the two countries severed following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. However, they have held several negotiations in more than two decades to resolve a dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities. But the negotiations have failed to yield no result so far due to the West, especially the US, excessive demands in the talks.