TEHRAN -- Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said Sunday Iran uses its own tools in the face of the other side’s excessive demands during negotiations on restoring the 2015 Iran deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in the Austrian capital.
Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks after attending a hearing session of the parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy to answer questions about the latest developments surrounding the diplomatic row over Iran’s nuclear program.
He said that during the talks, Tehran “has offered its initiatives and ideas on a logical basis whenever it was treated in a logical way by the other side.”
“Every time that the opposite side put forth excessive demands, we used the country’s own tools and power, so that they would understand that the interests and welfare of the Iranian nation were important to us and that we will continue our efforts to this end,” he said.
The minister expressed hope that the measures meant to get all the negotiating parties to return to the JCPOA, would be taken in such a way that Iran’s power and demands as well as people’s expectations are taken into consideration.
“While emphasizing the need to completely protect the rights of the country in international arena, our people expect us to do so while respecting all the red lines,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
Separately, the minister criticized the U.S. and its three European allies, the UK, France, and Germany for submitting an anti-Iranian resolution during the recent meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors.
Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a Saturday night phone call with Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, during which the two sides discussed the negotiations in the Austrian capital on the revival of the JCPOA.
Criticizing the United States and its European allies for the submission of an anti-Iranian resolution during the IAEA’s Board of Governors meeting, Iran’s top diplomat said the move was “hasty and politically motivated.”
Guterres, for his part, said the contents of the IAEA’s resolution were nothing more than recommendations, stressing the need for the continuation of the Vienna talks on the removal of sanctions imposed on Iran.
Adopted on Wednesday, the IAEA resolution was passed with 30 votes in favor, two against and three abstentions.
Following the IAEA’s move, Iran’s top nuclear official said the country has begun injecting uranium gas into advanced centrifuges and disconnected some UN nuclear agency’s cameras monitoring its sites outside the Safeguards Agreement.
“We have terminated the operations of a number of the agency’s cameras functioning outside the Safeguards, and tomorrow we will terminate the operations of the rest, which are 17 to 18 in total,” Muhammad Eslami told the national broadcaster on Thursday night.