US Should Show Respect If It Wants To Negotiate with Iran - Zarif

By Staff, Agencies

Iran will never succumb to US pressure and if Washington wants talks with Tehran it should show respect, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday.

Tension between Tehran and Washington have risen sharply in recent weeks, a year after Washington exited a 2015 deal signed between Iran and world powers which curbed Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international financial sanctions.

“Iran will never yield to pressure from the United States ... America should try to respect Iran ... if they want to talk to Iran, they should show respect,” Zarif said in a speech broadcast live on state TV.

Trump has called for talks with Iran’s clerical rulers with “no preconditions”. Tehran rejected this, saying Trump should return to the deal if he wants to negotiate with Iran.

After Tehran’s downing of an unmanned intruding American spy drone over Hormozgan Province last month, Trump ‘imposed sanctions’ on Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials.

Tehran, however, called the latest sanctions “idiotic” and warned US over violation of its airspace. Washington claimed the drone was in international skies when downed by Iran.