US talks? You’re dreaming, says Iran

Iran will refuse to negotiate with the US as long as Washington maintains its campaign of ‘maximum pressure’.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a press conference in Tehran. Picture: AP.

Iran will refuse to negotiate with the US as long as Washington maintains its campaign of “maximum pressure” — even if President Donald Trump is re-elected, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says.

Mr Rouhani’s defiant remarks solidify Iran’s hard line in a face-off with the Trump administration that only weeks ago brought Washington and Tehran to the brink of war.

“It makes no difference who will be the next administration,” Mr Rouhani said, speaking at a news conference in Tehran.

“Iran will never negotiate under pressure.”

He demanded that the US ­return to the 2015 nuclear deal, which Mr Trump quit in 2018 citing Iran’s military activity in the Middle East.

The Iranian President, who has been isolated domestically amid the nuclear deal’s near collapse and the economic damage of US sanctions, said he still had the support of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Mr Rouhani said he had twice asked Ayatollah Khamenei if he had a better candidate for the job of Iran’s president but was asked to stay. “I told the Supreme Leader, ‘If you think for some reason that someone else or another government can serve the country better, I’m ready to quit’,” he said.

Mr Rouhani threatened to ­resign after the Iranian military mistakenly shot down a Ukrain­ian passenger airline in January, with his government clashing with the country’s military over ­whether to admit responsibility.

The President on Monday, for the first time, acknowledged he heard about possible missiles being the cause of the plane crash a day after the incident. He said he wasn’t officially notified until nearly three days later.

Mr Rouhani spoke as Iran ­prepared for parliamentary elections on Friday, for which the ­establishment is trying to rally a large turnout to bolster itself against a rise of discontent.

After the downing of the Ukrainian jetliner, Iranians took to the streets to denounce what they said were lies by their leaders. The protests followed economic-related protests weeks earlier that rocked the nation, prompting a deadly crackdown by security forces in which hundreds of protesters were killed.

Although Mr Rouhani criticised Iran’s conservative Guardian Council for disqualifying many of his fellow moderates and reformists from running in the elections, he called for Iranians to head to the polls.

The long-brewing crisis ­between Tehran and Washington has escalated recently following months of harsh US sanctions that have hammered Iran’s economy but failed to change its military posture in the Middle East.

Tensions culminated in ­January with a direct military confrontation when the US killed general Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most prominent military commander and the engineer behind Iran’s network of allied militias. Iran responded by firing more than a dozen missiles at an Iraqi military base housing US troops. No one was killed.

While Washington says Iran is the main force responsible for ­destabilising the Middle East, Mr Rouhani said peace and stability was impossible without Iran’s help. He added that if Saudi Arabia halted its aggression in Yemen, where Riyadh has been fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels for more than five years, Iran would work with it to pursue peace in the region. However, that comment came as two Saudi pilots were ­reported missing after Houthis shot down their jet fighter over Yemen’s Jawf province on Friday.

US officials accuse Iran of arming the rebels with missile and drone technology — a charge Tehran denies.

The shooting down of the Saudi plane has the potential to deepen hostilities as a ceasefire threatens to collapse.

The attack on the Saudi plane triggered retaliatory airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Saturday, which according to the UN killed as many as 31 civilians.

The Wall Street Journal