Iran signalled an openness in direction of Donald Trump Saturday, calling on the president-elect to undertake new insurance policies in direction of it after Washington accused Tehran of involvement in a plot to kill him.
Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif urged Trump to reassess the coverage of “most strain” he employed in opposition to the Islamic republic throughout his first time period.
“Trump should present that he’s not following the incorrect insurance policies of the previous,” Zarif advised reporters.
His remarks got here after the USA accused Iran of conspiring to assassinate Trump.
The international ministry on Saturday described the American accusations as “completely unfounded”.
Tehran and Washington severed diplomatic relations shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Zarif, a veteran diplomat who beforehand served as international minister, helped to seal the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and Western powers, together with the USA.
Nonetheless, the deal was torpedoed in 2018 after the USA unilaterally withdrew from the deal underneath Trump, who later reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
In response, Iran rolled again its obligations underneath the deal and has since enriched uranium as much as 60 %, simply 30 % decrease than nuclear-grade.
Tehran has repeatedly denied Western accusations that it seeks to develop a nuclear weapon.
Zarif on Saturday that it was Trump’s political method in direction of Iran that led to the surge in enrichment ranges.
“He should have realised that the utmost strain coverage that he initiated triggered Iran’s enrichment to achieve 60 % from 3.5 %, and elevated its centrifuges,” he mentioned.
– ‘Improper approaches’ –
“As a person of calculation, he ought to do the mathematics and see what the benefits and drawbacks of this coverage have been and whether or not he desires to proceed or change this dangerous coverage,” Zarif added.
In December 2017 Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the next 12 months moved the American embassy there.
Trump additionally recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed.
Throughout his first time period, Trump additionally ordered the killing of revered Iranian army commander Qasem Soleimani, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps international operations arm, the Quds Pressure.
Soleimani was killed in a drone strike whereas he was within the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020.
The Islamic republic has not recognised its arch-nemesis Israel because the US-backed shah was toppled in 1979.
On Thursday, international ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei mentioned he hoped the president-elect’s return to energy would permit Washington to “revise the incorrect approaches of the previous”, though he averted mentioning Trump by title.
On Tuesday, election day in the USA, Trump advised reporters he was “not seeking to do harm to Iran”.
“My phrases are very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. I might like them to be a really profitable nation,” he mentioned after casting his poll.
Iran insists that it makes use of nuclear know-how for secure and civilian functions.
Trump’s election victory got here after Iran and Israel attacked one another straight, elevating fears of an additional regional spillover of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
