US uses protests to gain negotiation points: Iran
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran on Saturday said that the US is trying to use protests in Iran as a way to “gain points” in negotiations to revive the 2015 landmark nuclear deal.
“While the exchange of messages with us continues, the Americans are trying to be hostile to the issues that were going on inside Iran in the past days,” Iranian state media quoted Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying on Saturday after meeting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“I think they are looking to exert political and psychological pressure and want to gain points in the negotiations,” he added.
The foreign minister’s statement comes as several rounds of talks to revive the 2015 landmark nuclear deal in Vienna are yet to yield any result, and the US has on several occasions expressed its solidarity with the protest movement in Iran, a move which Iran considers as interference in its internal affairs.
“We do not give any concessions to the American side, and we move within the framework of logic and the framework of the agreement that respects the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but at the same time, we will never leave the negotiating table,” Abdollahian said.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, and the United States in 2015, offering Iran sanctions relief in exchange for the curtailment of its nuclear program that it rapidly advanced following former US president Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from what he called the “terrible” deal in 2018, sparking concerns that Tehran is seeking to develop an atomic bomb.
Unable to reach a deal for months, Iran is also dealing with mass dissent at home where people from across the country are protesting the controversial death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in police custody.
Iranian security forces have cracked down on protestors.
At least 215 people have been killed by the security forces and the protest have seen no sign of abating despite claims by the Iranian authorities that the protests have effectively come to an end.
Protests in solidarity with the Iranian people are also organized in other countries as well.
Thousands of people protested in Berlin on Saturday against the brutality of the regime in Tehran.
“While the exchange of messages with us continues, the Americans are trying to be hostile to the issues that were going on inside Iran in the past days,” Iranian state media quoted Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying on Saturday after meeting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“I think they are looking to exert political and psychological pressure and want to gain points in the negotiations,” he added.
The foreign minister’s statement comes as several rounds of talks to revive the 2015 landmark nuclear deal in Vienna are yet to yield any result, and the US has on several occasions expressed its solidarity with the protest movement in Iran, a move which Iran considers as interference in its internal affairs.
“We do not give any concessions to the American side, and we move within the framework of logic and the framework of the agreement that respects the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but at the same time, we will never leave the negotiating table,” Abdollahian said.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, and the United States in 2015, offering Iran sanctions relief in exchange for the curtailment of its nuclear program that it rapidly advanced following former US president Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from what he called the “terrible” deal in 2018, sparking concerns that Tehran is seeking to develop an atomic bomb.
Unable to reach a deal for months, Iran is also dealing with mass dissent at home where people from across the country are protesting the controversial death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in police custody.
Iranian security forces have cracked down on protestors.
At least 215 people have been killed by the security forces and the protest have seen no sign of abating despite claims by the Iranian authorities that the protests have effectively come to an end.
Protests in solidarity with the Iranian people are also organized in other countries as well.
Thousands of people protested in Berlin on Saturday against the brutality of the regime in Tehran.