Resuming ties with US not on agenda, says Iranian official

An Iranian official has said the country’s ongoing negotiations are only on the nuclear issue and resumption of ties with the US is not on the Islamic republic’s agenda, Press TV reported on Wednesday.

Tehran does not seek to resume diplomatic ties with Washington even if a comprehensive nuclear deal is reached between the Islamic republic and the P5+1 group, the official added.

Iran and the US “can behave in a way that they do not use their energy against each other in the region. A nuclear agreement can be very crucial in this regard”, the report quoted Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani as telling Financial Times of Iran.

“Everything will depend on the honesty of the Americans in the nuclear talks,” he added.

Shamkhani rejected that regular meetings between Iranian and American diplomats during the Iran-P5+1 (the US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) nuclear talks could lead to a rapprochement between the two countries.

Iran and the US severed diplomatic ties in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in the country in 1979.

“Negotiations are only for the nuclear issue,” the secretary said while emphasising that Iran would not buckle under international sanctions and retreat from its rights based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“We will not die if there is no agreement and we will not go to heaven if we reach an agreement,” Shamkhani said.

Iran and the P5+1 countries wrapped up their latest round of talks on the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme in the Swiss city of Geneva December 17.

Iranian and American diplomats have also held a few rounds of talks over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

IANS