Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has said once again that there is no communication between the U.S. and Iran. “Until now, Iran hasn’t received any message, either direct or indirect, from the new U.S. administration,” he told Sputnik International in an interview. This comes, as Sputnik reports, two weeks after U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed that the U.S. would soon start a series of negotiations with Iran in a bid to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between six other countries and Iran. Iran, Khatibzadeh said, is not planning to dispatch any messages to the U.S. either, especially given the fact that it was Washington that decided to leave one of the “longest and most detailed international agreements.”
“The JCPOA has a defined road map … and this is the reason why talks [on the resumption of nuclear negotiations] are not even necessary. Nor do we need to dispatch or receive messages.” The only thing that is needed, believes Khatibzadeh, is for the U.S. to stick to its own obligations, re-enter the JCPOA deal, and lift its current sanctions that have cost the Islamic Republic a trillion dollars in damage. The problem is that Washington is not willing to budge.
With respect to the sanctions and reports that Iranian oil imports have been growing, particularly to Asia, Khatibzadeh said it’s Iran’s legitimate right to expand its trade and it is also a proof that Western sanctions are not working. “The U.S. policy of maximum pressure has failed. If we look at statistics, released by international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, we will see that the recession in Iran is officially over and that that positive trend is projected [to continue].”
