Iran's Rouhani Expects US to Resume Commitments Under Nuclear Deal

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday voiced confidence that President-elect Joe Biden will resume US commitments under the nuclear deal which Donald Trump pulled out of.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington soared during Trump's presidency, especially after 2018 when he withdrew Washington from the landmark nuclear deal and reimposed punishing unilateral sanctions on Iran.

Biden, who defeated Trump at the ballot box in November, has signalled a willingness to return to diplomacy with Iran

And Rouhani's government has repeatedly signalled its openness to the incoming US administration and called on Washington to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and lift sanctions.

"I have no doubt that the perseverance of the Iranian people during these past three years will force the new US government to succumb and resume its commitments," Rouhani said in televised remarks.

“The sanctions will be broken," he added.

His comments come a day after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran should bolster itself to "nullify" the effects of the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, but should "not delay" in case they can be lifted.

Rouhani echoed Khamenei, saying time should not be wasted.

"We must act in order to nullify the effects of the sanctions... as the supreme leader has said."

"We should not wait, not even one hour, for the lifting of the sanctions. The government must do everything in its power to break the sanctions," Rouhani added.

He said Iran will do "everything possible to achieve" what he described as a "very important instruction" made by Khamenei.

Photo: IRNA

Iran 'Favors' Talks Despite Trump Snub

By David Vujanovic

President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Iran favors talks with the US if it lifts sanctions against the Islamic republic, despite his top diplomat turning down a meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Rouhani said "peace with Iran is the mother of all peace" and "war with Iran is the mother of all wars" as he defended a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

"Iran favours talks and negotiations and, if the US really wants to talk, before anything else it should lift all sanctions," Rouhani said in remarks aired live on state television.

Tensions between Iran and the US have been rising since Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and began imposing sanctions on it as part of a "maximum pressure" campaign.

Rouhani, speaking after meeting with his top diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said Iran was ready for talks regardless of whether or not the US was party to the deal.

"Whether they want to come into the JCPOA or not, it's up to them," said Rouhani, referring to the accord known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

"All sanctions should be lifted so that there will be no criminals facing us," he said, accusing the US of committing acts of "economic terrorism" for blocking food and medicine imports.

In response, the US ambassador on disarmament Robert Wood said: "Iran simply needs to make up its mind to decide what it wants to do".

"My president has said he is willing to sit down and have a discussion with Iran. We are not sure Iran wants to have that discussion," he said in answer to a question from AFP on the sidelines of a conference in Geneva.

However Rouhani described as "weird" the US approach of calling for negotiations and then slapping sanctions on Zarif.

"So how should we negotiate?" he said on Tuesday. "The person in charge of negotiations is the foreign minister. He must talk to you."

Trump has said publicly several times he is willing to hold talks with Iran even as he lambasts its leadership as corrupt, incompetent and a threat to regional security and US interests.

'Warmongers' Deceived Trump

Twelve months on from the US withdrawal, Iran responded by suspending some of its commitments under the nuclear deal.

The situation threatened to spiral out of control with ships attacked, drones downed and oil tankers seized.

At the height of the crisis, Trump called off air strikes against Iran at the last minute in June after its forces shot down a US drone.

Rouhani, with Zarif sitting beside him, defended the foreign minister who has faced criticism from hardliners over his role in the deal ultimately abandoned by the Americans.

"We had so many economic victories (in the wake of the deal) that it enraged some people," he said.

Rouhani said the US made a mistake when it thought "everything will be over" for Iran after "some planned a street riot" in December 2017.

At that time, Iran was rocked by days of deadly protests reportedly sparked by austerity measures.

"This caused Americans to be trapped. They thought Iran's system is weakened," he said.

"They said, 'One more push. Iran has reached a stage where if we give it another push, everything will be over'."

This push by "warmongers" deceived Trump and led to his decision to leave the JCPOA, he said.

'Oil for Oil'

Rouhani later spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron and voiced support for further cooperation between Iran and Europe, according to the government's official website.

But "unfortunately, simultaneous with Iran and France's attempts to reduce tensions and create favorable conditions for peaceful coexistence in the region, we witness escalatory moves from the US," Rouhani told Macron.

In his earlier televised remarks, Rouhani urged the US to be ready to negotiate fairly

"Peace for peace and oil for oil," he said. "You cannot say that you won't allow our oil to be exported.

"It cannot be that the Strait of Hormuz is free for you and the Strait of Gibraltar is not free for us." Iran has also been locked in a high-seas standoff with US ally Britain since Royal Marines helped to seize a tanker carrying Iranian oil off the British overseas territory of Gibraltar on July 4.

Weeks later, Iran's Revolutionary Guards impounded a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz—the conduit for much of the world's crude. Separately on Tuesday, Iran's military unveiled three precision-guided missiles, with Defense Minister Amir Hatami saying they showed the country was ready to defend itself in the face of US "viciousness and conspiracies.”

Photo: IRNA

With Trump's Blessing, Japan's Abe Looks to Mend Ties With Iran

By Golnar Motevalli and Isabel Reynolds

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a rare friend of both President Donald Trump and Iran’s leaders, left for Tehran with the daunting task of bridging a divide that could plunge the Middle East into renewed chaos.

Abe’s visit from Wednesday through Friday comes as the U.S. has given scant indication it’s ready to ease sanctions it reimposed after abandoning a 2015 accord meant to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. Tehran has said it can’t sit down with the Trump team while the U.S. is waging “economic war” on it.

With the two sides so far apart, any step that reduces mistrust and hostility would be a welcome achievement for Abe, seen more as a stable hand running the world’s third-largest economy than a globe-trotting peace negotiator. Trump sanctioned the trip, which would be the first by a sitting Japanese prime minister to Iran in 41 years and includes talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

“What Abe can do depends on what Trump has given Abe,” said Kazuo Takahashi, professor of International Politics at the Open University of Japan, who specializes in Japanese policy towards Iran. “If he is going as a messenger boy, he is shaming himself in front of the world’s public opinion. I don’t think he’d take such a political risk without some ideas of inducement for the Iranians offered by the Americans.”

Little Leverage

Abe, who spoke to Trump by telephone just ahead of his trip, told reporters at the airport before boarding his plane to Tehran Wednesday that he plans to have a frank exchange of views with Iran’s leader in Japan’s bid to play a role in the stability of the Middle East.

The trip comes as the Trump administration appears ready to step up its pressure, weighing sanctions against the Iranian financial body set up as a go-between for humanitarian trade with Europe. Such a move is likely to sever the economic and humanitarian lifeline that France, Germany and the U.K. have sought to create for Tehran. While Japan has maintained good ties with Iran for decades and called for Tehran to abide by the nuclear deal, its pro-U.S. stance could mean Abe’s offerings are received with caution.

Along with the Abe visit, diplomacy to salvage the Iran nuclear deal kicked into high gear this week with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas landing in Iran’s capital Monday and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency set to assess the state of the agreement supposed to rein in Iranian nuclear work in return for sanctions relief.

Iran has increased the rate at which it enriched uranium, although the amount stockpiled is still short of the 300 kilograms (661 pounds) allowed under the deal, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told reporters.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, told Maas the only way to reduce tension is ending America’s economic attack on Iran. The comments come after Tehran already set the bar almost impossibly high for Abe.

On Saturday, the country’s Supreme National Security Council said a successful visit means bringing a proposal for the U.S. to rejoin the nuclear deal, lifting its sanctions and paying for damages inflicted on Iran’s economy. 

“I don’t think he will be able to re-start talks between the U.S. and Iran, or get the U.S. to soften its line on sanctions or Iran to accept some of the U.S. demands. It won’t be anything like that,” an energy expert with ties to the Abe government said. 

“He will go and listen to the requests of the Iranian leadership and convey U.S. thinking to Khamenei and Rouhani, which will keep the dialogue going about the nuclear agreement,” said the expert, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the visit.

Economic Incentives

For Japan, there is an economic incentive to prevent tensions in the Gulf from spiraling out of control. It relies heavily on Middle Eastern energy, and before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the bulk of those supplies came from Iran. 

But as U.S.-Iran relations deteriorated over the years, Japan significantly reduced crude imports from Iran in favor of supplies from its Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait — all allies of Washington. 

With Saudi Arabia saying last month there were attacks on its oil tankers and Iran threatening to disrupt traffic in the Persian Gulf should Washington succeed in wiping out its oil sales, maintaining stability is of paramount importance to Japan. 

Family Affair

The Japanese public isn’t expecting much of the visit, an opinion poll released Tuesday from public broadcaster NHK showed, reducing the political risks for Abe. The visit does increase his global exposure ahead of an upper house election planned for July and Japan hosting the Group of 20 leaders summit in late June.

His father, former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, also tried his hand -- unsuccessfully -- at defusing Middle East tensions with a visit to Iran in 1983. He met then-President Khamenei, who would eventually be promoted to the clerical hierarchy and the mantle of the Supreme Leader.

“Politically, we never had a huge issue with the Iranian government, neither pre- nor post the revolutionary period in Iran. Our economic ties have been stranded, I would say, because of pressure from Washington,” said Koichiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese Institute of Middle East Economies in Tokyo. 

Photo: Bloomberg

Trump Says ‘Always a Chance’ of War With Iran But Prefers Talks

By Alyza Sebenius

President Donald Trump said there’s “always a chance” of the U.S. taking military action in Iran, though he’d prefer to engage verbally with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

“There’s always a chance. Do I want to? No, I’d rather not, but there’s always a chance,” Trump said when asked about the prospect of conflict in an interview on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. “I’d much rather talk.”

The comments come amid heightened tension between the two countries, after Trump blamed the Islamic Republic for recent violence in the Middle East and ordered 1,500 U.S. troops to the region last month. The small deployment indicated that Trump’s administration wants to avoid fueling fears of another war, though the president made it clear it wasn’t off the table entirely.

Trump said “of course” he’d be willing to talk to Rouhani, pointing out that the Iranian president had himself said he wasn’t looking for conflict with the U.S. “The only thing is we can’t let them have nuclear weapons,” Trump said.

Pentagon officials believe Iran was behind recent attacks on oil tankers, a Saudi oil pipeline and the Green Zone diplomatic compound in Bagdhad, though the U.S. hasn’t published evidence for the claims.

The United Arab Emirates and other countries are investigating the attacks on the ships, Saudi Arabian Foreign Affairs Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said last month.

‘Stay Away’

“The Americans need to stay away,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday. “Where they’ve gone there’s been war, killings, sedition, and humiliation,” he said, adding: “If they get close, we know how to act, we know what needs to be done.”

Trump’s tougher stance toward Iran—the U.S. pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord signed with global powers and reimposed sanctions—has strained relations with allies in Europe, including the U.K. At their press conference in London Tuesday, Prime Minister Theresa May said while the two governments agreed to work together to avoid escalation by Iran, they “differ on the means of achieving it.”

The nuclear accord capped Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. The agreement, the signatories said, would prevent Tehran from building the nuclear weapons that some Western powers and Israel feared were the end goal of its atomic program. Iran says its nuclear work is solely aimed at meeting civilian energy and medical needs.

May said the U.K., which is part of EU efforts to protect European trade with the Islamic Republic after the U.S. reimposed economic sanctions, still stands by the nuclear deal. Trump criticized the accord—and Iran—again in the ITV interview.

Iran was “extremely hostile when I first came into office,” he said. It was “terrorist nation number one in the world at that time, and probably maybe are today.”

Photo: Bloomberg

Japan PM to Meet Iran's Khamenei to Mediate With US

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later this month with Tokyo hoping to mediate between Washington and Tehran, a report said Sunday.

As tensions intensify between Iran and Japan's key ally the United States, Abe has reportedly proposed serving as a go-between and is said to be weighing up a state visit to Iran.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun report, Abe's planned meeting with influential Khamenei will be the first such talks between a Japanese premier and Tehran's supreme leader.

US President Donald Trump said last week he remained open to talks with Tehran during his state visit to Tokyo, appearing to have given the green light to Abe's plan.

Abe will also meet Iran's president Hassan Rouhani before meeting Khamenei during his tour to Iran from June 12 to 14, the newspaper said, citing unnamed government sources.

Before Trump flew to Japan, the United States had announced it was sending 1,500 extra troops to the region, adding to the aircraft carrier group and nuclear-capable bomber planes already dispatched.

Trump himself threatened "the official end" of the country if Tehran ever attacked US interests.

But last Monday in Tokyo, Trump offered assurances that he can live with the Islamic Republic's government, whose toppling has long been a dream for Washington hardliners.

"We're not looking for regime change," Trump said, explaining that he only cared about Iran not achieving nuclear power status.

"I do believe that Iran would like to talk, and if they'd like to talk, we'd like to talk also," Trump added, striking a relatively dovish tone on Iran.

Khamenei has likened negotiations with the Trump administration to "poison" since "they don't stand by anything", referring to Washington's withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal signed by Tehran and world powers.

Japan and Iran have kept a good relationship as resource-poor Japan relies heavily on imports of oil from the Middle East, though crude from Iran accounted for just 5.3 percent of the country's total imports last year.

Photo: Wikicommons

US Prepared to Talk to Iran 'With No Preconditions': Pompeo

By Francesco Fontemaggi

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday his country was ready to talk with Tehran "with no preconditions", but with no indication lifting sanctions over Iran's nuclear program is on the table.

The top US diplomat, who is considered a hawk on the Iran file, appeared to soften the US stance somewhat following weeks of escalating tensions with Tehran.

"We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions," Pompeo said in Switzerland, which in the absence of US-Iranian diplomatic ties represents Washington's interests in the Islamic Republic.

"We are ready to sit down with them," Pompeo told a joint news conference with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis at the impressive medieval Castelgrande castle in Bellinzona, nestled in the Alps in Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino region.

He was reacting to comments made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday insisting that his country would not be "bullied" into talks with the United States, and that any dialogue between the two countries needed to be grounded in "respect.”

But Pompeo appeared to immediately back-pedal on the offer to have condition-free talks with Iran, stating that Washington was "certainly prepared to have (a) conversation when the Iranians will prove they are behaving as a normal nation." 

’Malign Activity'

Pompeo's comments mark the first time the Trump administration has offered no-strings-attached talks since the recent escalation began in the wake of the US withdrawal from a hard-won 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

But Pompeo stressed that "the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue."

In other words, Washington has no intention to let up on its campaign of "maximum pressure" on Iran.

Pompeo himself last year laid out 12 draconian demands he said Iran would need to meet before reaching a "new deal" with the United States, essentially addressing every aspect of Iran's missile program and what Washington calls its "malign influence" across the region.

Washington has since reimposed sanctions, and has been locked in an increasingly tense standoff with Tehran.

Last month it deployed an aircraft carrier task force, B-52 bombers and an amphibious assault ship to the Gulf, along with additional troops against what Washington's leaders believed was an imminent Iranian plan to attack US assets.

But at the same time, Trump has over the past week toned down the rhetoric, saying Washington does not seek "regime change" in Iran and holding out the possibility of talks.

He said the US was merely "looking for no nuclear weapons," adding that "I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal. I think that's very smart of them and I think there's a possibility for that to happen also."

Swiss Mediation?

Swiss Foreign Minister Cassis meanwhile voiced his country's readiness to play the role of "intermediary" between the two countries.

But he stressed Switzerland could not be "mediators if there is not willingness on both sides."

Cassis also voiced concern about the "great suffering" in Iran brought about by the US sanctions, and urged Washington to identify a financial "channel" to allow the Iranians to purchase humanitarian aid without being slapped with US punitive measures.

Pompeo did not respond directly to this request, but he rejected the notion that US sanctions were causing suffering, instead blaming the leadership in Tehran.

The challenges facing Iranians "are not caused by our economic sanctions," he said. "They're caused by 40 years of the Islamic regime not taking care of their people and instead using their resources to destroy lives."

He meanwhile preferred to remain discreet about efforts, largely led by Switzerland, to ensure the release of a handful of American citizens being held in Iran, stating only that the issue was a top priority for Trump, and that Washington is "working with all willing nations to assist us." 

Photo: State Department

Iran's Khamenei: 'No War, No Negotiations With the US'

Iran's supreme leader said Monday there would be neither war nor negotiations with the United States, and that the country's problems were the result of government mismanagement more than renewed sanctions.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments add to the pressure on President Hassan Rouhani following a collapse in the currency and widespread protests over high prices and corruption.

They also appeared to rule out any hope of fresh talks with Washington, which US President Donald Trump had proposed after walking out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal and reimposing sanctions.

"Beside sanctions, they are talking about war and negotiations... let me say a few words to the people: THERE WILL BE NO WAR, NOR WILL WE NEGOTIATE WITH THE U.S.," Khamenei said via his official Twitter account in English.

There was also a show of military resolve as Defense Minister Amir Hatami unveiled a next generation short-range ballistic missile and vowed to further boost the country's missile capabilities.

State broadcaster IRIB said the new Fateh Mobin missile had "successfully passed its tests" and could strike targets on land and sea.

'Problems are internal'

Despite renewed sanctions, many Iranians—including many at the highest levels of the establishment—see US hostility as only a contributing factor to long-standing problems inside the country.

"Today's livelihood problems do not emerge from outside, they are internal," Khamenei said in another tweet. 

"Not that sanctions don't have an impact, but the main factor is how we handle them," he added.

Khamenei mirrored recent criticism of Rouhani's economic management from senior members of the clergy and the Revolutionary Guards—particularly over the collapse of the rial, which has lost around half its value since April.

A fortnight ago, Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari told Rouhani to take "revolutionary actions to control prices and prevent the enormous increase in the price of foreign currency and gold," in an open letter published by the conservative Tasnim news agency.

But Khamenei criticized conservatives who called for Rouhani's resignation, saying they were inadvertently "playing into the hands of the enemy".

"The government must stay in office and powerfully carry out its duties to resolve the problems," he said.

Crackdown

Part of the strategy has been an effort to show action against Iran's deeply entrenched corruption, which Khamenei once described as "a seven-headed dragon". 

The judiciary said Sunday it had arrested 67 people under a sweeping corruption crackdown and prevented 100 government employees from leaving the country. 

Khamenei approved a written request from the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, to set up special revolutionary courts to try people quickly for economic crimes.

Some lawmakers have criticized the move, with high-profile MP Ali Motahari saying on Monday that parliament must not be "by-passed" when writing new rules.

With the nuclear deal crumbling, Rouhani finds himself with little to show for his five years in power and increasingly under fire from all sides. 

Although the other parties to the agreement—Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia—have vowed to resist US sanctions, many foreign companies have already abandoned projects in Iran for fear of US penalties. 

A significant cut in oil sales is also expected when the US reimposes a second phase of sanctions in November—with some analysts estimating a drop of 700,000 barrels per day from its current level of 2.3 million.

State news agency IRNA reported on Monday that Iran is offering oil and gas at a discount to Asian customers in a bid to retain sales.

Khamenei's tweets followed a speech in Tehran, in which he described Trump's offer of talks as "a dangerous game" and his administration as a "bullying, fraudulent regime". 

"Even if we ever -- impossible as it is—negotiated with the US, it would never ever be with the current US administration," he added.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran's Khamenei: 'Negotiations With US Useless'

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that negotiations with the United States are "useless" because it does not abide by agreements.

"As I have previously said, we cannot trust in the words of the United States and even in their signature, so negotiations with the United States are useless," Khamenei told a gathering of Iranian diplomats in Tehran. 

"The idea that problems can be resolved through negotiations or relations with the United States is a major error," he added.

Having withdrawn from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, Washington is determined to isolate Iran and pile on economic pressure with a full reimposition of sanctions, starting in August.

Europe opposes the move and has vowed to find ways of maintaining its trade ties with Iran, which under the deal curbed its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions.

"Negotiations with the Europeans must continue, but we must not wait for their offer indefinitely," said Khamenei.

President Donald Trump has said he is open to a new deal that would cover not only Iran's nuclear facilities, but also its missile program and regional interventions which are seen as a threat to Washington's Israeli ally.

"The US seeks the return of the situation and their status before the (1979 Islamic) revolution in Iran," said Khamenei. 

"They are against the nuclear potential and the power of its (Iran's) enrichment, and its presence in the region."

Iran was a close ally of the United States up until the revolution.

Photo Credit: Khamenei.ir