TABNAK, Jan 01: The minister said diplomacy moves based on power and power-building factors such as missile capabilities.
“I have said many times, and I firmly believe, that had it not been for our missile capabilities, no one would have negotiated with us at all.”
In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries—the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany—signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was ratified in UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
“If they could destroy our nuclear facilities with a military strike, what reason would they have had to negotiate with us?”
“What reason,” the Iranian foreign minister asked, “would they have to sit down for over two years of negotiations, and have the US secretary of state or the foreign ministers of the P5+1 meet for 18 days to reach an agreement?”
“The reason was that they lacked the ability to eliminate our facilities militarily,” Araqchi stated.
“Our armed forces had generated this capability through missiles that had a deterrent effect.”
However, in 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the agreement, leaving the deal's future in limbo.
In retaliation, the Islamic Republic resorted to several legitimate retaliatory measures, which were in line with its entitlement under the JCPOA.
The steps came in response to Washington’s unilateral and illegal withdrawal and its Western allies’ refusal to restore the deal to its former glory by bringing Washington back into the accord.
“It was the United States that withdrew from this agreement, and we, considering the US’s withdrawal, adjusted our policies and expanded our nuclear program,” Araghchi said.
“When the sanctions were reinstated, we naturally suspended our commitments based on the mechanisms outlined in the JCPOA.”
“They are not going to make it through force, pressure, and sanctions. They have experienced this; the more sanctions and pressure they impose on Iran, the more resistance Iran will show.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian foreign minister said that whether or not new negotiations will take place depends on how prepared the other side is.
“We have never, even after the US’s withdrawal, and not even until recently under the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s government and afterward, left the negotiation table.”
“We are confident about the peaceful nature of our nuclear program, and that negotiations should result in building trust regarding Iran’s nuclear program, with the lifting of sanctions in return.”
“This has always been our position, and we negotiated based on this approach and formula in the JCPOA,” Araghchi stated.
“The Islamic Republic has never abandoned negotiations.”
“This is a principle, but it must be a negotiation that is honorable and fair, with which the rights of the Iranian people and our red lines are respected, and it should not be for wasting time, nor should it be negotiations for the sake of negotiations or a prolonged process,” Iran’s top diplomat said.
In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA after the other parties failed to live up to their commitments.
Tensions between Iran and European countries have escalated over the past two years due to European accusations that Iran has supplied ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the Ukraine conflict. Tehran rejects that allegation categorically. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also stated that no such missiles were delivered to Russia.
In a recent action against Tehran, the European troika pushed the adoption of a resolution in the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The resolution accused Tehran of poor cooperation with the agency and demanded a “comprehensive” report on its nuclear activities by spring 2025.
In response, Iran said it has activated a “series of new and advanced centrifuges.”
