Iran Serious In Talks But Distrustful Of Foreigners – Top Negotiator

Iran’s deputy foreign minister says the country is serious in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal but is also determined to distrust the “enemy” and foreigners.

Ali Bagheri-Kani, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator in Vienna talks with world powers, made the remarks on Sunday as he visited Iran Oil Show 2022 underway in Tehran, adding that Iranian scientists and industrialists of the energy sector are a major force in the country’s ability to "neutralize sanctions."

He said the "art" of circumventing sanctions was once the industry's only instrument against George W. Bush's "smart sanctions", which then turned into "technology" to counter Barack Obama's “crippling sanctions" and then into "knowledge" to thwart "sanctions imposed by Donald Trump's maximum pressure campaign."

Other countries under sanctions are now seeking to acquire "sanctions neutralization knowledge" from the Islamic Republic, he added.

Bagheri-Kani went on to say that scientists and industrialists not only empower the country’s diplomacy to foil sanctions but also boost Iran’s deterrent power to stand against such measures.

The Vienna talks came to a standstill in mid-March as major stumbling blocks between Tehran and Washington remained unresolved.

A major disagreement reportedly remains the US listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ while Iran has also refused to drop calls for retribution for the US killing IRGC general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.