Iran, World Powers To Meet As Rouhani Stresses that US Is Not Able to Ban Oil Exports

Local Editor

Iran and Russia announced Tuesday that the foreign ministers of Tehran and five world powers still party to the 2015 nuclear deal will meet in Vienna on Friday for talks on the accord.

According to IRNA, the top diplomats of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia will join their Iranian counterpart  Mohammad Javad Zarif in the Austrian capital for their first talks together on the deal since Washington pulled out earlier this year.

During the meeting the ministers will discuss an "incentive package" the European Union is offering to try to persuade Iran to stay in the agreement, IRNA reported.
The meeting will seek "solutions to preserve the Iran nuclear deal after the illegal US action to withdraw," it said.

In Moscow, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies that the meeting aimed to "prevent the disintegration" of the accord and to "protect the interests of economic actors".

"We should send a message to Washington showing how much the position of countries participating in the deal differs from the stance of [US President] Donald Trump," he said.

The announcement of Friday's meeting came with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Europe.
Rouhani, accompanied by Zarif, was in Switzerland on Tuesday and due to head on Wednesday to Vienna, where the accord was signed in 2015.

Rouhani has lashed out at American officials for threatening to stop Iran's oil exports, saying they would never be able to carry out such a threat.

"The US [officials'] statement in this regard is unilateralism…and a breach of all international rules and regulations in energy and trade sectors," Rouhani said at a joint press conference with his Swiss counterpart, Alain Berset, in Bern on Tuesday.

He added that it is "incorrect and unwise" to think that "one day all oil producing countries would export their surplus oil and Iran would be the only country that cannot export its oil."

Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement two months ago, to the ire of the other signatories which along with the European Union have continued to back the accord.

Iran has warned it is ready to resume uranium enrichment to 20 percent - above the level permitted in the deal -"within days" if the agreement falls apart.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team