US negotiation offer nothing but propaganda: Iran FM
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says a recent proposal by the United States to enter into negotiations with Iran over Tehran's nuclear issue while re-imposing sanctions against the country is nothing but propaganda.
"Iran will never change its policies in the region under US sanctions and pressure," IRNA quoted Zarif as speaking in an interview with the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster on Monday.
Emphasizing that Washington must lift the bans on Tehran, Iran's foreign minister said, "Iran will never hold negotiations about its missile program, because our missiles do not threaten anybody."
President Donald Trump said on July 30 that he is ready to meet his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, “any time they want to.”
“It’s good for the country, good for them, good for us and good for the world. No preconditions. If they want to meet, I’ll meet,” Trump said.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the Islamic Republic will not enter into new negotiations with the United States due to cheating and bullying nature of its government.
Speaking in a meeting with a large group of Iranian people in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed talks with the US, saying Washington is only after concessions.
In a live televised interview on August 6, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US administration is no more able to prove its trustworthiness for any negotiations after its withdrawal from a landmark nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May and a number of other international treaties.
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Elsewhere in his interview, Zarif said the US has launched an economic war against Iran and Turkey, emphasizing that Tehran would fully stand by Ankara in its confrontation with Washington.
Amid a worsening dispute between the United States and Turkey, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Saturday slammed a new wave of US sanctions against Turkey, saying such approaches would prove ineffective.
"We hope that the Turkish government and people will manage these conditions and pressure imposed from outside Turkey's borders and … they will definitely do that, because others cannot change the willpower of nations through coercion and threats," Qassemi said in an interview with IRIB.
Relations between Ankara and Washington have sunk to their lowest point in decades over a number of issues, including the detention of American pastor, Andrew Brunson, on terror-related charges, and the depreciation of the Turkish lira to hit record lows against the dollar.
The US president wrote on Twitter late last month that his country "will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by announcing to freeze the assets in Turkey of US ministers of "justice and interior," in tit-for-tat response to US sanctions.
On Friday, the US president announced doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey, saying relations between Washington and Ankara are “not good.”
A day after Trump's announcement, the Turkish president warned that his country’s partnership with the US might be in “jeopardy” and said, "Unless the United States starts respecting Turkey's sovereignty and proves that it understands the dangers that our nation faces, our partnership could be in jeopardy."
Zarif also said in his interview that Trump's plan to create a NATO-like security and political alliance among Arab countries to confront Iran is "another illusion and useless policy."
He added that Saudi Arabia is leading a criminal policy in Yemen and Western countries are cooperating with Riyadh in its war on Sana'a by remaining silent and dispatching arms.
The Al Saud regime, along with some of its allies particularly the UAE, has been waging a deadly war against impoverished Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and crush the popular Ansarullah movement.
Some 15,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen.
The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
A high-ranking UN aid official has warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.
“The conflict has escalated since November, driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes,” John Ging, UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.
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