Iran says United States’ ‘contradictory’ positions are main obstacle to deal
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in an interview with CNN Sunday that Iran’s main issue when it comes to negotiating with the U.S. to end the war is America’s changing and contradictory positions.
“The main problem of negotiating with this administration is that you have to face so many changing positions — moving the goal posts, different statements, contradictory remarks by different officials, so it makes the whole process very cumbersome,” Baghaei said.
Still, Baghaei said an exchange of messages through Pakistani mediators is ongoing.
“I can tell you there are quite a number of sticking points, but the main issue is that the Americans must understand that they have to recognize Iran’s rights,” Baghaei said. “What we want is our rights under [the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons], as far as [the] nuclear issue is concerned.”
In addition, Baghaei added, the U.S. must stop its sanctions on Iran, and “learn not to talk to Iranians the way they have been used to.”
Sunday marks 100 days of the war in Iran, which started with U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country, with a shaky ceasefire that was agreed to in April.
President Donald Trump, in an interview with NBC News, said that “we’re very close to having a deal” to end the war.
“And if we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it one way or the other,” he said. “Either way, we win.”
Trump said he wants to keep U.S. troops deployed in the region until “completion.”
“I don’t consider them in danger,” he added.
Should a deal be negotiated, Trump said, the U.S. wants to work with Iran to retrieve and destroy its highly enriched uranium.
“If we make a deal that now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site,” Trump said. “And we will go with them, or without them. But we won’t have people shooting at us, OK?”
An end to Iranian sanctions, Trump said, wouldn’t be part of the deal. That “comes after,” he said.
“If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking,” Trump said.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
