TEHRAN (Iran News) “These negotiations are being conducted with full coordination and authorization from the Leader,” the chief executive said during a meeting with a number of clergymen in Tehran on Tuesday.

“Our goal is to genuinely resolve issues, not to engage in talks for the sake of talks. We are seriously pursuing tangible results and hope this process will lead to concrete outcomes,” Pezeshkian added.

Also on Tuesday, the second round of renewed nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US concluded in Geneva.

The Iranian side cited “good progress,” while underlining the need for the process to result in verifiable removal of the illegal and unilateral American sanctions targeting the country.

Addressing the talks on the same day, Ayatollah Khamenei denounced Washington’s attempts at imposing any certain outcome, noting, “To predetermine the outcome before talks even begin is wrong and foolish.”

“This is precisely the foolish approach being taken by American presidents, certain senators, the current president, and others,” the Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei warned that the United States was “seeking to dominate the Iranian nation,” asserting, however, that the people, in light of their lofty culture, historical precedence, and values, would “never pledge allegiance to corrupt figures like those currently in power in the United States.”

The Islamic Republic has vowed not to bow down to Washington’s and its allies’ excessive demands throughout any diplomatic process, including their call on Tehran to completely suspend its peaceful nuclear energy program or start including issues such as its missile might or regional influence as additional subject matters in the talks.

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Addressing university students in Tehran, Rouhani said Iranians are resisting the pressure exerted by the enemies, but “it doesn’t mean that if we have a way to break the enemy’s conspiracy, we do not take that path.”

Rouhani said under such circumstances, “negotiation is a necessary and revolutionary task.”

He said his government is duty-bound to “use any means to resolve people’s problems.”

The president further pointed to the agreements Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) reached with the Jews and others during the early years of Islam. “We must consider our interests in any conditions,” said Rouhani.

Last week, he said Iran was willing to return to the negotiating table if the United States first dropped sanctions.

European countries have been pushing for talks with Iran to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal that has been unraveling since the United States withdrew and reimposed sanctions last year.

Rouhani has long demanded the lifting of US sanctions for Iran’s return to talks under the auspices of the so-called P5+1 that reached the deal – the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

“If they are prepared to put aside the sanctions, we are ready to talk and negotiate, even at the level of heads of the 5+1 countries,” Rouhani said on Wednesday.

On Monday, he said the nuclear deal was neither “sacred” nor “damned”, but “an international agreement from which we should try to reap benefits.”

The landmark 2015 deal gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

The deal has been at risk of falling apart since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in May last year and reimposed sanctions.

Known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it was agreed between Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, plus Germany.

Twelve months on from the US pullout, Iran began reducing its commitments to the deal, hoping to win concessions from those still party to the accord.

Its latest step back came last month when engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into mothballed enrichment centrifuges at the underground Fordo plant south of Tehran.

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Following is the full text of the interview:

US President Donald Trump has driven up the pressure against Iran while at the same time suggested he might be willing to talk to Iranian leaders. How serious he is in this offer? Does he really want to engage Iran diplomatically?

Trump is impulsive, acts inconsistently, and is almost impossible to interpret accurately in advance of his actions. He seems to view foreign policy choices as transactions with a gain/loss transactional connection as measured by his sense of impacts on domestic American politics.

On balance, it would seem sensible for Iranian leaders to test whether Trump is sincere about a willingness to negotiate a way out of present confrontational diplomacy, but without investing their own credibility or political composure by doing so. A show of receptivity, perhaps with a condition asserted that hostile actions be suspended with respect to Gulf tanker navigation, might be an appropriate way to see whether there exists a potential opening for restorative diplomacy aimed at crisis resolution.

As the 2020 election gesture, it is important for Trump to talk on the phone or in-person with Iranian officials. In this regard, some experts believe that he should give special concessions such as oil waivers to Iran so that they come to the negotiation table. Do you think that Trump is ready to make any kind of concessions?

As I have indicated, it is difficult to assess what Trump might be prepared to do if he believes there would be a positive payoff in his 2020 electoral prospects by talking peace directly with Iranian leaders. On the one side, is Trump’s pledge back in 2016 to avoid further American involvement in Middle East wars, and presenting himself as someone who has avoided costly and failed international adventures. On the other side is the appointment of war-mongering and Islamophobic individuals as his principal foreign policy advisors, Bolton and Pomeo. Also, Trump’s belligerent political personality always seeks to project a tough guy, bullying image in dealing with foreign governments with which there are active conflictual relations.

It seems as if Trump administration wants Iran to withdraw from JCPOA. Will be the US-Israeli interests better provided In case of Iran’s withdrawal?

It seems that the Trump objective is to reach a new agreement on Iran’s nuclear agreement that he can claim gives Israel and Saudi Arabia more assurance that Iran will not have the means to cross the nuclear threshold covertly or in a short period of time. These supposed concerns were his main argument relied upon in repudiating and withdrawing the US from the JCPOA, and reimposing and extending harsh sanctions. These concerns hide to some extent the real motivations that were to please Israel and repudiate a major achievement of the Obama presidency.

Of course, it seems unlikely that Iran would give Trump such a victory in the context of either revalidating JCPOA or reaching a new agreement. In that event, the further unraveling of JCPOA confronts Trump with a dilemma, either acknowledging the failure of his approach or escalating the tensions by further escalating tensions with Iran, and risking the outbreak of war.

We are witnessing French President Emmanuel Macron efforts to convince Trump to rejoin JCPOA. How serious should we take these efforts? Shall we think of them as a US coordinated plan?

There is no firm evidence to support the view that US diplomacy with respect to Iran would cooperate with France in overcoming the present impasse. As my prior responses suggest, Trump would have to be willing to back down if there is a renewal of the US commitment to JCPOA, or deepen the already dangerous crisis. I suspect that it is possible that the Macron role might give the parties more time to figure out whether they can find a mutually acceptable face-saving compromise. Both Iran and the United States have rather firm positions. It is difficult to expect Iran to renew its commitments, much less strengthen them, under JCPOA, unless the US agrees to roll back present sanctions on Iran in a convincing manner. In contrast, it is difficult to imagine Trump reducing sanctions unless he can point to some sort of victory that places new restrictions on the international regulatory regime governing Iran’s nuclear program as a result of the earlier agreement.

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Referring to his statements, in an interview with Mehr News Agency, Seyyed Mostafa Mirsalim said lifting sanctions is not enough and the US also have to pay for the damages it has inflicted on Iran, if there is going to be negotiation between Iran and the US.

Blocking Iran’s oil export, suspention many contracts with foreign companies due to US secondary sanctions which caused harm and damage to many industries in Iran, as well as preventing the import of essential commodities that have caused many humanitarian problems are among the damages that have been inflicted on Iran for the past year and a half by the US, he mentioned.

After US withdrawal from the deal in May 2018, Trump administration imposed several sanctions against Iran.

Recently, President of Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said that despite the comments made by Brian h. Hook, Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to the US Secretary of State and other US administration officials who have claimed for several times that the United Sates sanctions regime doesn’t include food, medicine, medical devices, and agricultural products, the path to the arrival of specific drugs to Iran remains closed and Iran faces problems in importing of medicines and medical equipment due to the closure of currency accounts of Iran and the lack of money transfer.

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The Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection Oleg Grigoryev made the remarks on Saturday in his meeting with Hojjatollah Salehi Head of Center for Nuclear Safety in line with boosting international cooperation and promoting scientific and technical capabilities of country’s nuclear safety system.

In this meeting, besides exchanging views with regard to developing and expanding bilateral cooperation in the field of safety of non-ionizing radiations including mobile phone antennas, the two sides placed their special emphasis on the purposeful development of bilateral cooperation in relevant areas, he added.

Oleg Grigoryev is holder of the highest medal of Russian Academy of Sciences who has specialty in the scientific and research activity in specialized form for more than 25 years.

It should be noted that Oleg Grigoryev visited Iran at the official invitation of Iranian Nuclear Safety Center for participating in a scientific seminar and in line with exchanging the latest scientific data as well as transfer of experience of Russia’s technical knowhow to Iran.

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Referring to the US Friday’s announcements against Iranian nuclear industry, the official said that “their measures will not bear fruit and all will end in favor of Iran.”

According to a statement by State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, starting Saturday, May 4, the Trump administration sanctions any assistance to expand Iran’s nuclear power plant at Bushehr and bans exports of heavy water and any further uranium enrichment. At the same time, US has renewed three key waivers that will allow European allies, Russia and China to cooperate with Tehran on civil nuclear work.

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