TEHRAN -- Iran’s top security official on Tuesday ruled out direct talks with the United States in Vienna, emphasizing that no face-to-face discussion has been or will be held between Iranian and American diplomats.
“So far, contacts with the U.S. delegation in Vienna have been through exchanging non-papers. Neither has there been nor will there be a need for more,” Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani tweeted.
However, Shamkhani said, such a communication method between Tehran and Washington could be replaced by other methods if a “good agreement” is within reach in the Austrian capital.
His remarks came after U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday that Washington remained open to meeting with Iranian officials directly to discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the 2015 Iran deal, and other issues.
“We are prepared to meet directly. We have consistently held the position that it would be much more productive to engage with Iran directly on both JCPOA negotiations and on other issues,” he told reporters.
Iran and the remaining participants to the JCPOA have been holding talks in Vienna since April last year with the aim of reviving the deal by bringing the U.S. back into full compliance.
The U.S. left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump. The Vienna talks began on a promise by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, to rejoin the deal and repeal the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Biden, however, has so far failed to undo Trump’s own undoing of Barack Obama’s Iran policy, which led to the JCPOA in June 2015.
Observers say the talks are advancing at an optimal pace and if all sides act realistically, a final agreement could be achieved within a logical time interval.
Tehran has not allowed the U.S. to attend the negotiations due to its withdrawal from the JCPOA and its failure to remove its anti-Iran sanctions.
Shamkhani separately said Iran powerfully pursues the strategy of balancing its foreign relations, adding the country’s dealings with Russia and China and its talks in Vienna to remove sanctions are complementary in securing Tehran’s national interests.
“The strategy of balancing foreign relations will be pursued powerfully,” he said in a tweet late Monday.
“Moscow, Beijing & Vienna play a complementary role in securing
#Iran’s national interests. The artificial dichotomies are all misdirected addresses that have limited the functioning of foreign policy in past,” he added.
In a Persian-language version of his tweet, Shamkhani specified the artificial dichotomies of the “battlefield and diplomacy or look East and pivot to the West”.
Iran has invariably underscored over the years that it aims to have political and economic relations with all countries across the world as long as the sovereignty and integrity of the Islamic Republic are respected.
Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, said earlier in the day that the promotion of relations with the neighboring countries is the main priority of the country’s political approach, adding that the new administration is determined to optimize relations with all neighbors.