TEHRAN, August 27. /TASS/. A meeting between Presidents Hassan Rouhani of Iran and Donald Trump of the US cannot take place unless Washington resumes compliance with the nuclear deal, Iranian top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday.
"During a trip to Biarritz, I said that a meeting between the Iranian president and Trump was impossible unless the US returned to the 5+1 group [consisting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany — TASS] and started implementing the nuclear deal," Zariv said, as cited by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). He added that "bilateral talks won’t take place until that happens."
According to the Iranian top diplomat, "what US and French officials discussed in this regard is their own business." "Our position is clear: the US and Trump violated the agreement that was a result of lengthy talks between the involved countries, so now there is a need to implement previous agreements. We don’t see the US take any appropriate actions to that end," Zarif emphasized.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed it was necessary for Trump and Rouhani to hold a meeting as it "could help stop tensions form rising." The US president said in response that he was ready to meet with his Iranian counterpart "if the circumstances were correct."
Iran nuclear deal issue
In 2015, Iran and six major powers (five member states of the United Nations Security Council — Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China — and Germany) agreed on the final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which particularly stipulated the removal of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. He said that old sanctions on Iran would be restored and new ones would be introduced in case Tehran attempted to pursue its nuclear ambitions. The first batch of new US sanctions on Iran took effect on August 7 and the second one became effective on November 5. In contrast, Great Britain, Germany and France called on other participants in the deal to continue fulfilling it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pledged that Moscow would seek to maintain the agreement.
On May 8, 2019, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran was reducing its commitments under the JCPOA. He pointed out that the other signatories, primarily EU countries, had failed to fulfill their economic obligations under the deal, making it irrelevant. Rouhani said they had two months to return to compliance. The deadline expired on July 7. On July 8, Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi stated that Tehran had exceeded the uranium enrichment level of 4.5%. Iran said it would continue to gradually reduce its JCPOA commitments every 60 days unless other signatories restored compliance.