SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Dispatches) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said U.S. sanctions must be lifted, and there must be guarantees established to ensure their “lasting removal”.
Speaking exclusively to Al Jazeera here, the Iranian president also ruled out face-to-face talks with the United States, and he questioned the sincerity of Washington in wanting to reach a deal with Tehran.
“Removal of sanctions should be accompanied with the resolution of safeguards. There are some political and baseless accusations against Islamic Republic of Iran when it comes to safeguard issues,” Raisi said here where he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting on Thursday.
“So, we should finalize these safeguard issues,” he said.
“Regarding the guarantees, if we have the trustworthy guarantees, and we have the lasting removal of the sanctions, not temporary removal of sanctions, and if there is a lasting solution for the safeguard issues, for sure it is possible to reach agreement,” the president said.
Months of indirect talks between Iran and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have hit a dead end.
Raisi censured a raft of new sanctions that Washington has imposed on Iran, asking, “If Washington is after an agreement, why does it apply new sanctions during the course of the nuclear talks?”
“We are determined to put up a decisive defense of Iran’s and its people’s rights.”
Iran ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970, which requires non-nuclear-weapon states to accept comprehensive safeguards that are demanded by the UN agency.

Alsa as a goodwill gesture, Iran voluntarily chose to have extensive cooperation with the IAEA, beyond the safeguards agreement.
Back in June, Tehran decided to stop the voluntary cooperation, while stressing that its commitments under the agreement would continue.
Raisi also said the West has to ask the Zionist regime to stop its nuclear weapon program instead of picking on Iran over its peaceful nuclear activities.
“Before asking us to stop our nuclear activities, the West has to make this demand on the Zionist regime that owns weapons of mass murder,” he stated.
Raisi, meanwhile, touched on ongoing talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia that seek to mend the differences between the two sides.
Riyadh ruptured its diplomatic ties with Tehran in early 2016 following demonstrations which were held in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad by angry protesters censuring the Al Saud family for its earlier killing of the top Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
“Talks with Saudi Arabia continues. We have held five rounds of talks and will continue to hold more,” the president said.
Addressing Iraq’s drawn-out failure to form a government, Raisi said, “We would be delighted to witness a strong government in Iraq.”
The Arab country has been without a government since parliamentary elections in October. Lawmakers faithful to influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr exceeded their fellow aspirants in the polls by winning as many as 73 seats.
Raisi said European countries had approached the Islamic Republic concerning the Iraqi crisis, saying, “We told them that this issue concerns the Iraqis.”
The Iranian president also said, “The region’s problems would be solvable if foreign forces stopped their interference,” adding, “The Iraqis should not allow the Americans’ presence.”
The Iranian president finally addressed the issue of an April-present ceasefire in Yemen.
The truce has been almost holding, despite sporadic violations by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which began waging a war on the Arab world’s poorest nation in March 2015.
President Raisi said in order for the truce to enter a permanent state, the coalition had to lift a siege that it has been employing against Yemen since the onset of the invasion.