Rouhani adviser says any talks with US must include return to nuclear deal
Hamid Aboutalebi’s comments come after Trump offers to begin talks with ‘no preconditions’
An adviser to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that any talks with the United States had to start with reducing hostility and a return to the nuclear deal.
“Respect for the great nation of Iran, reduction in hostilities, US returning to the nuclear deal… That will open the rocky path of the moment,” Hamid Aboutalebi said on Twitter.
He was responding to a statement by US President Donald Trump on Monday that he was willing to meet “any time” with Iran’s leaders without preconditions.
“I would meet with Iran if they wanted to meet,” Trump said at a White House press conference, barely a week after he had traded bellicose threats with Rouhani.
Aboutalebi said Iran had showed its openness to dialogue in the past, particularly with the phone call between Rouhani and Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama in 2013.
That dialogue was “based on the idea of confidence-building measures and the nuclear deal was an achievement of this effort and it must be accepted,” wrote Aboutalebi.
However, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on Monday, prior to Trump’s statement, that talks with the current US administration were impossible.
“Given the hostile measures of the US against Iran after its withdrawal from the JCPOA (nuclear deal) and the reinstatement of economic sanctions, there is no possibility for talks and Washington reveals its untrustworthy nature day by day,” Ghasemi told reporters, according to the conservative-aligned Mehr news agency.
Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May, and is set to reimpose full sanctions in two stages in August and November.
He says he wants a new deal that goes beyond limiting Iran’s nuclear program and includes curbs to its regional behavior and missile program.
Trump’s statement about his willingness to meet with the Iranian president came barely a week after he warned Iran that it would suffer untold “consequences.”
“I would meet with Iran if they wanted to meet,” Trump said Monday at a joint White House press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. “I don’t know if they are ready yet.”
“No preconditions,” he added. “They want to meet, I’ll meet. Any time they want. Good for the country. Good for them. Good for us. And good for the world.”
White House and administration officials rushed to place caveats on the president’s seemingly open invitation.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNBC on Monday that he was on-board with the president’s invitation, saying Trump “wants to meet with folks to solve problems.”
But he appeared to add several qualifications: “If the Iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their maligned [sic] behavior, can agree that it’s worthwhile to enter in a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said he’s prepared to sit down and have a conversation with him.”
US National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said Trump was open to dialogue and even ending four decades of bitter animosity between the two countries, but only if Iran fundamentally changes.
“The United States is prepared to take actions to end sanctions, reestablish full diplomatic and commercial relations, permit Iran to have advanced technology and support the reintegration of the Iranian economy into the international economic system,” Marquis said.
“However, this relief is only possible if there are tangible, demonstrated and sustained shifts in Tehran’s policies. Until then, the sting of sanctions will only grow more painful if the regime does not change course.”
Trump’s offer comes after a provocative warning a week ago from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said the US should not “play with the lion’s tail” and warned that any conflict with Iran would be the “mother of all wars.”
Trump responded with an all-caps tirade on Twitter: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.
“WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!” he added.
‘I believe in meeting’
Trump has repeatedly shown a willingness to cast traditional diplomatic protocol aside and meet with leaders shunned by other administrations, including North Korean’s Kim Jong Un.
“I believe in meeting,” Trump said. “Speaking to other people, especially when you are talking about potentials of war and death, and famine and lots of other things, you meet.”
On July 23, Pompeo said Washington was not afraid to sanction top-ranking leaders of the “nightmare” Iranian regime.
Pompeo also said that Washington wants all countries to reduce their imports of Iranian oil “as close to zero as possible” by November 4, or face American sanctions.
“There’s more to come,” Pompeo said of US financial penalties.
