On Monday, the president-elect of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, rejected the chance to meet with the United States President Joe Biden. In response to CNN’s requested on the U.S. to return to the nuclear agreement, in his first international press conference since he won the general election in Iran over the weekend.
Furthermore, the president-elect announced that he would not meet with the American president, even if both countries agreed on terms to revive the 2015 nuclear pact, under which Iran settled to stop enriching uranium in return for the withdrawing U.S. sanctions. On Saturday, the staunch Western critic and the hardline judiciary declared Ebrahim Raisi the winner of a historically uncompetitive election in Iran.
All main rivals of Raisi were banned from the race, whereas the total turnout of the vote was 48.8%, the lowest number since the establishment of Iran in 1979. Raisi will become the 8th president of Iran when he took over Hassan Rouhani in August 2020. At present, Iran is on the indirect dialogue process with the United States in Vienna over how to retrieve the nuclear deal, which the former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018.
Raisi Accused the U.S. and European Union of Violating Nuclear Deal
The President-elect accused the United States and the European Union of violating the 2015 Nuclear Deal, and he also called on the U.S. president to withdraw all sanctions from Iran before adding that the ballistic missile program of the country was not due for dialogues. He was responding to a question from CNN during his Monday’s press conference in Tehran.
Raisi added that his serious proposal to the United States government is for them to come back to the pact in an accelerated manner, and if they do this, they will prove their sincerity for the deal. Further, he adds that Iranians don’t have good memories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Source: Web
In an opening statement, he said that Europeans failed to live up to their commitment, and Americans violated the JCPOA. He reiterated the United States to lift the sanctions and fulfill their commitments. Raisi said that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure sanctions campaign on Iran was not successful. The new Iranian leader welcomed dialogue and diplomacy but said that the foreign policy of Iran would not limit to the 2015 Nuclear Pact.
Iran Resumed its some Nuclear Activities in Response to the Trump’s Sanctions
Trump pulls out America from the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran resumed some nuclear activities. Furthermore, in April, Iran announced to enrich uranium up to sixty percent purity, pushing the nation closer to reaching the ninety percent enrichment level that considered weapons-grade. But the country repeatedly denied its plans to gather nuclear weapons.
In May, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that direct dialogues had started between top Iranian and Saudi officials. The diplomacy between both countries froze for the last five years with many decades of strained relations. Tehran and Riyadh cut off ties in 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr, the top Shia cleric. Moreover, Raisi urged Saudi Arabia to stop the hostilities in Yemen.
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