Rouhani says Iran refuses ‘any talks under sanctions’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday ruled out negotiations with the United States so long as sanctions are in place and said he was not interested in a “memento photo” with President Donald Trump.

“I would like to announce that our response to any negotiation under sanctions is negative,” Rouhani said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

As European leaders sought to arrange a tension-reducing encounter between the Iranian and US presidents, Rouhani dismissed what he saw a photo-op for the media-hungry Trump.

“Memento photos are the final stage of negotiations, not the first one,” he said.

He doubted the sincerity of the United States to negotiate, pointing to Trump administration officials’ boasts of damage inflicted by sanctions on Iran.

“We cannot believe the invitation to negotiations by people who claim to have applied the harshest sanctions in history against the dignity and prosperity of our nation,” he said.

“How can someone believe them when the silent killing of a great nation, and pressure on the lives of 83 million Iranians, especially women and children, are welcomed by American government officials?”

“The Iranian nation will never, ever forget and forgive these crimes and these criminals,” he said.

Rouhani said that if the United States wanted an agreement beyond the 2015 nuclear deal it has abandoned “you have to pay more.”

“Our response to talks under pressure is no,” Rouhani said in a prepared text of UN General Assembly speech obtained by Reuters as the United States raised the pressure by sanctioning Chinese firms for dealing in Iranian oil despite US sanctions.

Rouhani warned world leaders that the Gulf region is “on the edge of collapse, as a single blunder can fuel a big fire.”

“We shall not tolerate the provocative intervention of foreigners. We shall respond decisively and strongly to any sort of transgression to and violation of our security and territorial integrity,” Rouhani told the annual gathering of world leaders

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accented the positive.

“Diplomacy is the only way to resolve issues,” Zarif said.

Despite French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to bring about talks between the two countries, Trump on Tuesday said he would intensify sanctions on Iran as part of his “maximum pressure” policy to force Tehran to negotiate a broader deal.

“The truth is that Iran responds to strength not to supplication,” US Secretary of State Pompeo said in a speech at a conference in New York on the sidelines of the UN gathering.

“We are telling China, and all nations: know that we will sanction every violation,” Pompeo said.

The confrontation between Tehran and Washington has ratcheted up since last year, when Trump withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled its economy.

In his UN speech on Tuesday, Trump accused Iranian leaders of “bloodlust” and called on other nations to join in applying pressure on Iran after Sept.14 attacks on Saudi oil facilities that Washington blames on Tehran despite its denials.

However, Trump also said there was a path to peace and Rouhani, the nuclear pact’s architect, has left the door open to diplomacy, saying that if sanctions were lifted, Washington could join nuclear talks between Tehran and other powers.

Despite the French and British leaders urging Rouhani to meet Trump, an Iranian official told Reuters there was no chance that the US and Iranian presidents would meet while they are both in New York for this week’s annual gathering of world leaders.

An Iranian official was categorical in playing down the idea of Trump and Rouhani meeting this week and called for the United States to return to the nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“The chances of a meeting are zero. They know what to do. They should return to the JCPOA, lift sanctions and end this unfair maximum pressure on Iran. Then of course they can join the talks under the deal,” the Iranian official said.

Agencies