AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi says the United States should first remove its oppressive sanctions against the Iranian nation before speaking of direct negotiations with the Islamic Republic.
During a live television interview on Tuesday, Raeisi reacted to statements by a US State Department official, who said recently that Washington was “prepared to meet directly” with Iranian officials.
The US must “first remove the sanctions that they have imposed on the Iranian nation and then speak of negotiations,” said Raeisi. “Iran will, in turn, consider direct negotiations after the sanctions are removed.”
The president reiterated that the removal of the sanctions could lead to the agreement’s revival. “If the other party removes the sanctions, there will be possibility to revive the pact.”
‘Not everything rests on negotiations’
President Raeisi, however, asserted that not everything relied on the negotiations. “We will pursue the negotiations, but it is not like the negotiations solve everything.”
Besides trying to have the sanctions removed, the government is also trying to “neutralize the sanctions,” he said, adding that proper economic relations with the neighbors constitute one way of negating the bans.
Govt. after striking balance in foreign relations
The president said his administration was determined to enhance Iran’s economic and commercial relations with foreign countries, which he said were not as advanced as its political ties.
“We should establish some [form of] balance in the country’s foreign relations,” Raeisi noted.
For instance, the president said, the country could unlock a massive economic and trade capacity in its relations with its 15-strong neighbors.
He said his recent trip to Tajikistan was followed by a triple increase in the volume of the bilateral business relations.
Raeisi said his trips to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan also led to positive developments in the Islamic Republic’s economic relations with the ex-Soviet republics.
By the same token, the roughly-$3-billion volume of economic relations with Russia could be enhanced to as much as $10 billion, he said.
Breaking dollar's dominance
President Raeisi also noted that his recent three-hour-long meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow had featured agreement between the two sides on "the need for breaking the dollar's dominance on the countries' monetary and financial interactions."
"I and Mr. Putin were in agreement that a lot of commercial transactions between the two sides could be done using [each side's] national currency," Raeisi noted.
The two also discussed exporting Iranian agricultural products to Russia and importing "strategic" Russian commodities to the Islamic Republic, the chief executive stated.
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