Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the comments in a seminar held on Saturday at Asia Society in New York, which was also attended by a number of American thinkers and retired US politicians.
In response to a question about the relations between Iran and the United States, the top Iranian diplomat said that Iran has no problem with the American people, but the Iranian people cannot tolerate the decades of the hostility on the part of the American government against them, which dates back to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and prior to that, the American-led coup in 1953.
He also considered the US behavior towards the Islamic Republic of Iran as a clear example of double standards which show itself in the form of differences in the speech and behavior of the White House, adding that the speech and behavior of the American government towards Iran have always been contradictory and what is the standard for the Iranian government and nation is action of the American government and not its words. Decades of experience have shown us that one should judge based on the practical American behavior.”
The head of Iran’s diplomatic apparatus further said that the person who has to be blamed for the current JCPOA situation is the previous President of the United States, Donald Trump, but after Trump, the practical approach adopted by Joe Biden’s government and the continuation of sanctions and continued animosity show the same approach as before.
Amir-Abdollahian further said that the US government continued its counter-productive approach even after the implementation of the recent prisoner swap, clearly showing that it is not ready to correct its past wrong and ineffective behavior.
He pointed out that the White House always miscalculates in relation to Iran, adding that, “we witnessed the same mistake in last year’s riots.”
“On the one hand, they kept sending us messages that they were ready to negotiate to return to JCPOA, while on the other hand, they announced in the media that JCPOA was not on their agenda and they are looking at the street and the revolution in Iran,” he pointed out about Washington’s pinning hope on last year’s riots in Iran.
As regards the JCPOA, the minister also said that “despite the criticism on the part of our government in Iran regarding some provisions in the JCPOA, our policy is to return to the JCPOA as an international agreement, but the US approach is multi-faceted and is based on just killing time. If the American government is serious, the negotiations can be concluded in a short time possible and then all parties will return to the JCPOA and their full abidance by the commitments.”
In the seminar, the foreign minister of Iran reiterated Iran’s position on the Ukraine conflict, stressing that Tehran will continue its efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict.
“We always seek to reduce tension in the region and the world,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
“Just as we have not linked our political independence to America and Europe, nor we will tie it to any country in the East. We have relations with the East and West of the world in line with our national interests,” the foreign minister concluded.
KI
