Sadiq said that his consultations with the Iranian foreign minister were satisfactory.

The Pakistani envoy elaborated on Pakistan’s stance on developments in Afghanistan.

About Sadiq’s visit, Pakistan’s Embassy in Tehran had stated that it was to follow a high level of talks between the special envoy and top Iranian officials on regional issues and events in Afghanistan as well.

Meanwhile, Iranian and Pakistani special envoys held a meeting on the sidelines of Zarif’s Islamabad visit about five months ago.

The two had reviewed the latest developments including the process of peace talks in Afghanistan.

Waves of bomb explosions in public places causing deaths and maiming the Afghan people have deteriorated the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

Afghan Government held the Taliban responsible for the heinous car bomb explosion in Herat, Afghanistan.

The car bomb explosion in Herat caused deaths and maiming civilians in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s letter to the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, outlines Iran’s stance on the status of the 2015 nuclear deal and contains no initiative.

In his Friday letter, Zarif has censured the US and European parties for their poor performance with regard to the landmark agreement.

“It is announced in the letter that if the United States intends to reform its illegal measures in violating the JCPOA and imposing cruel sanctions, the first essential step is to return to full compliance as the violating party,” Khatibzadeh said.

Zarif has also reiterated that Iran would reverse all its measures only after other parties fully implement their commitments.

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Former US President Donald Trump’s administration once confirmed that Iran has been committed to the JCPOA and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the same thing in five reports.

They should first solve the problem, he said, adding that if the problem is mistrust, it is actually Iran’s lack of trust in the West that has never appropriately implemented the JCPOA.

They need to solve this, and then as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said, Iran will implement the deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and a number of top exporters of goods and technical-engineering services have discussed foreign trade and export of such services in a meeting in Tehran.

“The export of goods and technical-engineering services is key to the development of Iran, and a leap in production is not possible without exports,” Zarif said.

“We have emphasized to our ambassadors in other countries that their performance is evaluated based on the amount of non-oil exports, the export of technical-engineering services, the export of human resources, import of capital and technology, and development of tourism (increased visits of tourists to Iran),” he added.

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‘Pressure never works with Iran, only respect’

“US President Joe Biden has spurned predecessor Donald Trump’s Iran policy in words, but has so far pursued the same course of action in practice,” Zarif said in an interview with Iran’s Press TV.

“The US is addicted to sanctions, bullying, and pressure. But it doesn’t work for a country with millennia of history. We have had a global empire that lasted longer than the United States’ history,” he added.

“Therefore, with Iran pressure does not work, and maximum pressure, in their own words, has led to ‘maximum failure’,” he said.

The Americans, he said, have to “open their eyes, make a sober assessment of the past, not only with Trump, and realize that with this country only respect works.”

Zarif said that the United States has not gained any leverage against Iran through its unlawful sanctions, adding that on the contrary, the restrictive measures have only helped Iran diversify its economy away from oil.

‘Iran not violating JCPOA, only implementing remedial measures’

The top diplomat reminded that Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA enables Iran to take “remedial action” against failure by other sides to implement their obligations.

The Islamic Republic, he added, was not violating the agreement, it was simply implementing the remedial steps that it is entitled to in line with the pact.

He referred to a parliamentary law that obliges the Iranian government to take the latest step in its retaliation, namely the planned suspension of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s short-notice visits of the country’s nuclear program. The law, he said, was not a “warning to the world,” but a “domestic” interaction between the government and the legislative body that holds the government responsible.

Following the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran waited for an entire year for the European signatories to hold up the end of their bargain and secure Iranian business interests, guaranteed by the deal, in the face of US sanctions. However, as the Europeans failed to deliver under US pressure, Tehran began to scale back its commitments in several phases in retaliation.

Zarif dismissed any assertion on the part of the US or its European allies in the JCPOA that “we signed several instructions” as per the international agreement.

“It’s not just singing, it’s the impact,” Zarif said, noting how the US allies failed to implement even a single one of their obligations following Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the agreement.

JCPOA scope never to expand

Those alleging that the JCPOA has to encompass more subject matters than it already has should be sure that it will “absolutely not,” Zarif said.

The US and some of its regional allies have demanded that Iran’s missile program and regional influence be included in the nuclear talks. Tehran has roundly rejected any such prospect, saying it will not renegotiate “a done deal” and that its defensive activities and regional might are not open to any negotiation.

‘Concerns about Iran program nonsense’

Separately, Zarif noted that the Israeli regime possesses the Dimona nuclear facility, which he called the sole “nuclear bomb factory” in the Middle East, yet a recent report by The Guardian about the secret expansion of the facility was not met by even an “expression of concern” on the part of the US or its European allies.

Therefore, while the Israeli regime is allowed to go ahead with such non-conventional activities, any talk about concerns about Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program is “nonsense,” he said.

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Voluntary implementation of Additional Protocol will halt, but inspection of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continues, Zarif added.

In a recently-held interview with Japan’s Kyodo news agency, Zarif said the Majlis law has to be implemented.

When the window closes, Iran will enrich further uranium and promote nuclear development, Zarif told the news agency.

Last day, In an interview with Japan’s Kyodo News, Zarif called Japan an old friend of Iran and noted its good relations with the United States.

“We expect Japan to act as a friend, particularly when it comes to international law,” Zarif said, referring to the illegal nature of the US sanctions.

“Since the United States is violating international law, the best role that Japan can play is to show Americans that Japan will not implement their illegal decisions,” he said.

Zarif specifically called on Japan to unfreeze Iranian assets frozen in Japanese banks due to US sanctions, as a gesture to Iran by the new government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who came to power last September, Press TV reported.

According to Zarif, frozen assets in Japan and South Korea total close to $10 billion. Japan’s share — mainly revenue from crude oil exports to Japan — is estimated to be just under $3 billion.

Zarif said the unfrozen funds could be used to procure medicines and food, including vaccines for the novel coronavirus.

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According to a brief written excerpt of an interview with NBC News published on Monday, Blinken alleged it could be “a matter of weeks” if Iran continues to lift restraints put in place by the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Zarif rejected those comments in an interview with CNN on Monday.

“I think that is a statement of concern that is more addressed to the public opinion than to reality,” the foreign minister said.

“Iran does not seek a nuclear weapon. If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon, we could have done it some time ago, but we decided that nuclear weapons would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our ideological views.”

In a full transcript of the NBC News interview sent out on Monday evening by the US State Department, Blinken said he was basing his projections on “public reports” and said the timeline would get “more acute” if Iran lifts more nuclear deal restraints.

“Now, the fissile material is one thing. Having a weapon that they can actually detonate and use is another,” Blinken said, according to the readout.

Iran began to loosen compliance with the deal after former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against the Iranian government.

As part of the deal, signed in 2015, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.

US President Joe Biden, who took office on January 20, has promised to return to the accord and re-engage diplomatically with Tehran.

According to the excerpts of the NBC News interview, Blinken said Washington will return to the Iran nuclear deal provided Tehran gets into compliance and the Biden administration then plans to negotiate a “longer and stronger” accord.

But Iran has said it will not renegotiate the deal and placed blame on the US for its unilateral withdrawal.

“The nuclear accord is a multilateral international agreement ratified by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is non-negotiable and parties to it are clear and unchangeable,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted by state media as saying on Saturday.

In his interview with CNN, Zarif said the US does not have “unlimited” time to rejoin the deal.

“The United States needs to come back into compliance and Iran will be ready – immediately – to respond,” Zarif said.

“The timing is not the issue. The issue is whether the United States, whether the new administration, wants to follow the old failed policies of the Trump administration or not.”

Biden has named people involved in Iran’s nuclear deal negotiations to key positions within his administration. That includes Robert Malley, his new Iran envoy, and Wendy Sherman, his nominee for deputy secretary of state.

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French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche published on Saturday, said Iran was building up its nuclear weapons capacity and it was urgent that Tehran and Washington return to a 2015 nuclear agreement.

“Dear colleague: You kick-started your cabinet career with arms sales to Saudi war criminals. Avoid absurd nonsense about Iran,” Zarif said in a Twitter post, in which he tagged his French counterpart @JY_LeDrian.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has drawn criticism from some countries and rights groups over its support of Saudi Arabia’s actions and allowing weapons it has sold to Riyadh potentially to be used in its Yemen operations.

“Reality check: YOU are destabilizing OUR region. Stop protecting criminals who chainsaw their critics and use YOUR arms to slaughter children in Yemen,” Zarif tweeted, referring to Le Drian’s previous post as French defense minister.

Iran, which denies seeking to make nuclear bombs, rejected a statement on Saturday by three European powers party that warned the Islamic Republic against starting work on uranium metal-based fuel for a research reactor, saying it violated the nuclear pact and had serious military implications.

Zarif criticized France, Germany, and Britain – which remain in the deal with China and Russia – for failing to enforce the agreement since 2018 when U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal and restored harsh economic sanctions on Iran.

“E3 leaders — who rely on (the) signature of OFAC functionaries to carry out their obligations under JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) — have done ZILCH to maintain JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Remember @EmmanuelMacron’s stillborn initiative or UK non-payment of court-ordered debt? JCPOA is alive because of Iran and not E3,” Zarif tweeted.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has pledged to return the United States to the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance” with the agreement that imposed strict curbs on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions.

In reaction to Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has gradually breached many of the deal’s restrictions. But Tehran says it could quickly reverse those steps if Washington first lifts its sanctions.

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