AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI IS NOT KIM JONG-UN

Iran rejects Trump offer of talks as worthless and a 'dream'

By Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Israel Hayom
August 1, 2018

Senior Iranian officials and military commanders on Tuesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's offer of talks without preconditions as worthless and "a dream," saying his words contradict his actions in reimposing sanctions on Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also said Trump's repudiation of the 2015 international nuclear deal was "illegal" and Iran would not easily yield to the U.S. campaign to strangle Iran's vital oil exports.

In May, Trump pulled the United States out of the multilateral deal, denouncing it as one-sided in Iran's favor. On Monday, he said that he would be willing to meet Rouhani without preconditions to discuss how to improve relations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the United States should blame itself for ending talks with Iran when it withdrew from the nuclear deal.

"U.S. can only blame itself for pulling out and leaving the table. ... Threats, sanctions and PR stunts won't work," he wrote.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Trump's offer to negotiate with Iran contradicted his actions, as Washington has reimposed sanctions on Iran and put pressure on other countries to avoid business with it.

"Sanctions and pressures are the exact opposite of dialogue," Bahram Qasemi was quoted by Fars news agency as saying on Tuesday.

The head of the powerful Revolutionary Guards equally dismissed Trump's tentative offer, saying Iran is not North Korea.

"Mr. Trump! Iran is not North Korea to accept your offer for a meeting," Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying by Fars News agency.

"Even U.S. presidents after you will not see that day," he added.

The head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations said Iran sees no value in Trump's offer, made only a week after he warned Iran it risked dire consequences if it made threats against Washington.

"Based on our bad experiences in negotiations with America and based on U.S. officials' violation of their commitments, it is natural that we see no value in his proposal," Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying by Fars.

The Strategic Council on Foreign Relations was set up by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to help formulate long-term policies for Iran.

Trump's move to force Iran into new negotiations has for now reunited Iranian hard-liners who opposed the nuclear deal and pragmatists like Rouhani who championed it to end Iran's economically crippling standoff with Western powers.

Ali Motahari, the deputy speaker of parliament who is seen as part of the moderate camp, said that to negotiate with Trump now "would be a humiliation."

"If Trump had not withdrawn from the nuclear deal and not imposed sanctions on Iran, there would be no problem with negotiations with America," he told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

A senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would not meet with his Iranian counterpart during a meeting of Southeast Asian nations in Singapore this weekend.

Under the 2015 deal, the fruit of Rouhani's efforts to ease Iran's international isolation to help revive its economy, Iran curbed its nuclear program and won relief from U.N. and Western sanctions in return.

Trump condemned the deal in part because it did not cover Iran's ballistic missile program and involvement in Middle East conflicts. He reactivated U.S. sanctions, the most all-encompassing measures against Iran, and warned countries to stop importing Iranian oil from Nov. 4 or risk U.S. penalties.

European signatories to the deal have been searching for ways to salvage it but cautioned Iran that they may not be able to persuade many investors not to bolt from business with Iran to avoid U.S. punishment.

Rouhani said during a meeting with Britain's ambassador on Tuesday that after what he called the "illegal" U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, "the ball is in Europe's court now."

He said, "The Islamic republic has never sought tension in the region and does not want any trouble in global waterways, but it will not easily give up on its rights to export oil."

Rouhani and some senior military commanders have said Iran could disrupt oil shipments from Persian Gulf states through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington tries to choke off Iranian oil exports.

Reiterating the official stance, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi was quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying that the strait would remain open "if Iran's national interests are preserved."

Iran's representative to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, told Reuters on Tuesday that Trump was mistaken if he expected Saudi Arabia and other oil producers to compensate for losses of Iranian oil caused by U.S. sanctions.

"It seems President Trump has been taken hostage by Saudi Arabia and a few producers, when they claimed they can replace 2.5 million barrels per day of Iranian exports, encouraging him to take action against Iran," Ardebili said.

"Now they and Russia sell more oil and more expensively, not even from their incremental production but their stocks."

He said oil prices, which Trump has been pressuring OPEC to bring down by raising output, will instead rise unless the United States grants waivers to buyers of Iranian crude.

Iran's currency plummeted to new depths on Monday, dropping below 120,000 rials to the dollar, but Trump's expressed willingness to negotiate with Iran sparked a minor recovery on Tuesday to 110,000 rials on the unofficial market.

Videos on social media showed hundreds of people rallying in Isfahan in central Iran, and Karaj near Tehran, in protest against high prices caused in part by the rial's devaluation under heightened U.S. pressure.