Iran rejects the possibility of a meeting between Rouhani and Trump

Iran on Wednesday rejected the prospect of a meeting between President Hassan Rouhani and US President Donald Trump after the White House sent signals.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin announced on Tuesday that Trump was ready to meet the Iranian president without preconditions after the US president sacked his national security adviser John Bolton.

But they stressed that Washington would maintain the campaign of extreme pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Rawangi, reiterated in an interview published by the official IRNA news agency on Wednesday that Rouhani’s position had been reiterated.

“Unless America stops its economic terrorism against Iran, the issue of negotiating with it is out of the question”, he said.

“We’ve repeatedly stated and the president has openly declared that there is no room for dialogue and negotiation as long as the unjust embargo and US economic terrorism are imposed on the Iranian people”, he said.

“When they lift the unjust embargo, we can talk about this and negotiate within the framework of the (5 + 1) group that existed before on the Iranian nuclear issue”, he said.

Asked about the impact of Bolton’s dismissal on relations between Iran and the United States, he said: “It is too early to judge”.

“The question of changing the policy of American extremism is related to various factors that affect the organization of American foreign policy”, he said.

“The changes and developments within governments and countries are an internal issue that exists in all countries”, he said.

On Tuesday, the US president announced in a tweet that he had sacked John Bolton, his national security adviser, who had been at loggerheads with him over several hot spots from Iran to North Korea through Afghanistan.