The Iranian president: I won’t hold a meeting with Biden and the nuclear negotiations are useless
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi confirmed on Saturday, that he won’t hold a meeting with his US counterpart, Joe Biden.
Iranian Fars news agency reported, on Saturday evening, that Ebrahim Raisi’s statements came on the eve of his participation in the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, through a dialogue with an US media, in response to a question about the possibility of holding a face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Fars news agency quoted the CBS News network, that Ebrahim Raisi announced in an interview with the channel that he won’t hold a meeting with Joe Biden, saying: I don’t think that such a meeting will happen, and I don’t see the point in either meeting or negotiating.
On his opinion of the difference between the administration of former US President Donald Trump and the administration of Joe Biden, at the present time, the Iranian president said: The new government in America claims to be different from the Trump administration, but we haven’t seen any change in practice.
This came after Ebrahim Raisi said, last Thursday, that the final decision on reaching a nuclear agreement with the major powers is in the hands of the United States, stressing that lifting sanctions on his country must be accompanied by “the realization of guarantees”.
Raisi commented during an interview with the Qatari al Jazeera English: “It is now up to Washington to take the final decision regarding reaching a nuclear agreement, and lifting sanctions on Tehran, and it must be accompanied by achieving guarantees”.
Raisi called for the need to “resolve the issue of safeguards” to move forward in the nuclear negotiations, adding that the West should ask Israel “which has weapons of mass destruction” to stop nuclear activities before they ask Iran to do so.
The Iranian president affirmed his country’s determination to “defend its rights and people,” saying that direct negotiations with the United States on the nuclear agreement are futile, and that Washington needs to take confidence-building measures with Tehran.
The nuclear deal (the 2015 Joint Plan of Action) collapsed after then US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions.
In response, Iranian officials expanded the country’s nuclear program and abandoned their commitments.
Talks over Tehran’s nuclear program, which include sanctions relief, have been on the brink since European negotiators proposed weeks ago a final 25-page draft agreement after nearly a year and a half of negotiations.
After signs that a return to the 2015 deal may be imminent, the parties have now succumbed, at best to further delays, postponing talks, and preventing Iran from increasing its crude oil sales.
