DUBAI, February 10. /TASS/. Conclusion of a new deal with the US will not meet Iran's national interests, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said.
"The US has never been trustworthy and cannot be trusted now. A deal with the US should be mutually beneficial. Today, we do not believe that a deal with the US will be in our interests," he told Iran's state broadcaster.
According to the politician, US President Donald Trump "has already shown in the past that he cannot be trusted." "It is unlikely that he will change his [behavior] now," Aref said during the celebrations of the 46th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution.
On February 4, Trump signed an executive order to restore maximum US pressure on Iran. The document provides for the intensification of Washington's efforts to reduce Iran's oil exports. At the same time, the US leader allowed the possibility of a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and said he wanted to make a "great deal" with Tehran.
On February 7, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that it was impossible to negotiate with the United States because it had already deceived Tehran once. Washington concluded a nuclear deal, failed to fulfill its terms, did not lift anti-Iran sanctions and unilaterally terminated the agreement, Khamenei recalled.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed with Tehran in 2015 by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to resolve the crisis over Iran's nuclear research. The pact marked the end of a crisis that began in 2004, when Western countries accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons and imposed sanctions. In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump withdrew from the deal and reinstated all anti-Iranian sanctions, the lifting of which had begun under the terms of the deal.