A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official said the Iran’s nuclear deal with the P5+1 group, known as JCPOA, proved to be a success story, but only for the P5+1. He made the remarks in sideline of the Tehran Security Conference on Monday. More than 200 Iranian and international political figures and analysts attended the one-day event.  

“Iran has fully lived up to its commitments regarding the deal as it has been repeatedly, 10 times, confirmed by the IAEA. However, Iran and the Iranian people would not remember the deal as a success story as the other side of the agreement has not fully honored its obligations. As a matter of fact, Iran has not benefited from easing of the sanctions,” he said during a meeting with a number of European politicians, according to Iran’s View Mojtaba Mousavi.

Trump must decide by January 12 whether to extend sanctions waivers. “What will happens if President Trump does not waive the sanctions and go out of the deal?” the official asked. “What I can tell you is that we have all received our instructions. The Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) is fully prepared to speed up our nuclear program and we have also our instructions to go and activate the mechanism in the JCPOA to deal with this non-compliance of the deal by the US.” 

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization chief had earlier warned that the country would reconsider its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if the US fails to implement its commitments as per the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Speaking in a telephone conversation with IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano on Monday, Ali Akbar Salehi warned about the consequences of Washington’s possible withdrawal from the JCPOA.

Iran Not Convinced Europe Will Take Its Side after US Withdrawal

“It is the time for Trump to re-certify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA and extend the waivers. If he refuses to do that, it means the end of JCPOA for the US. But is this the end of the deal for Iran and other parties as well? To be honest, it depends on the Europeans’ reaction,” the senior Iranian official added.
“Europeans must convince Iran that they can deliver on their JCPOA commitments without the US. It’s certainly a very big question. To be frank, however, we are not convinced that Europeans would do that. We are not convinced that Europeans can support their own companies against the US and encourage them to work with Iran in case the US sanctions are back.”

“Europeans have so far failed to convince Iran that they can maintain the deal without the US,” he went on to say.
“Actually Europeans played a very good role in past two or three months to prevent the US Congress from doing anything wrong regarding the JCPOA but I’m not sure they can do the same with President Trump himself.”

It seems that Iranian administration has concluded that the US is determined to exit from the nuclear deal. Iranian political circles are still discussing the best way to react to the failure of the JCPOA and some senior politicians believe that Iran’s reaction should be independent from the EU reaction to the US.

“If the US exit from the deal, Iran must leave the deal. We can’t again rely on the Europeans weak promises, we should put an end to this sequence of damages as soon as US kills the nuclear deal,” says Hossein Lotfi, a conservative political activist.

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Today, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, who is in charge of the nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 since the moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani took the office in the June 14 presidential election, presented a new proposal from Iran during the 1st round of talks and left his deputy Abbas Araghchi in room to lead the Iranian negotiating team.

Iranian diplomats also began lobbying to the P5+1 few days before the talks when Morteza Sarmadi another deputy of the Iranian foreign minister visited Beijing on the eve of the nuclear talks.

Abbas Araqchi also had a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ryabcov on the sidelines of the plenary meeting on Tuesday morning.

Russia and China, as two members of the P5+1 play a key role in balancing the group’s stance towards Iran.

During the talks, having been previously headed by hardliner Saeed Jalili, Iran and the P5+1 failed to reach a consensus even on what topics they should focus on.

Political observers in Tehran maintain that one of the most important obstacles in the former rounds of talks was that the two sides did not have a common objective and the talk sessions proceeded with unrelated, disorderly discussions.

Tehran and the P5+1 members have agreed to keep Iran’s new nuclear proposal which is titled as “An end to a unnecessary crisis, a beginning to a new horizons”  as confidential. Iran also kept its Baghdad proposal presented last year to the P5+1 confidential until the group rejected that months later in Almaty.

Iranian diplomat described the major steps Iran has assumed for reaching an agreement with the other side of the talks were said this morning through a Powerpoint presentation by Zarif.  The steps can be summarized  as being:

– Accepting Iran’s nuclear right for developing, investigating, producing and using nuclear energy;

– Employing truth-finding strategies;

– International cooperation for fulfillment of Iran’s rights;

– Halting all the sanctions imposed on Iran; and

– Cooperation in common interests and concerns.

Both sides of the talks are sending positive signals about the nature of today’s negotiations. But the most important change we are witnessing is the realistic viewpoint of the parties and expectations is balanced as we hear from the early statements of the officials.

 “We will try to reach preliminary results by tomorrow morning, but anyway we do not expect to reach a final solution by tomorrow,” said Abbas Araghchi while briefing Iranian media after the end of first plenary today morning.

He also expressed hope for next round of talks to take place less than one month later.

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Protests in Istanbul, Turkey rage on after police reacted violently to an occupation Gezi Park, located in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, initially because of government plans to develop a shopping mall over the park.

Violent crackdown of protesters transformed the protest into massive anti-government demonstrations around the country.

After the protests became world news, Western media got it wrong by characterizing the uproar as a revolt against Islamic influence in Turkish politics or simply an environmental protest.

But to be more accurate, these protests should be seen as a chain of demands of people from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government over recent years.

More than 1,700 people have been arrested and dozens are injured or dead. The anti-government demonstrations have flared up in 67 cities as well as important cities of Izmir, Ankara, Antalya and Konya.

These demonstrations had a negative influence on turkey’s economy leading to a fall in its stock exchange market and decrease in its tourism industry.

Iran has a great influence in its neighbor, Turkey. However Sayed Abbad Araghchi the spokesperson of Iran’s Foreign Ministry strictly denies any interventions in Turkey and described it as an internal issue of the country.

“The protests in Turkey are a domestic issue and Iran will never intervene there,” said Mansour Haghighat-Poor, The deputy of National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis in an exclusive interview with Iran’sView.

He, however, invited the turkey to “peacefully dealing with the protesters and avoiding violence”, and emphasized “the need to respect the demands of the protesters.”

“These protests somehow roots in Turkey’s Foreign Policy. Iran had previously warned the Prime Minister Erdogan about opening borders to terrorists and helping subversion of Syrian legal government which will leads to the Turkish dissatisfaction and finally protests, besides ending in chaos in the region,” he said.

Haghighat-Poor suggested to Erdogan “try to solve the domestic issues and welfare problems” by ending “support for the Syrian armed opposition”.

“If the Turkish government doesn’t correct its mistakes and instead continues in its current policies, more opposition will emerge and Turkey will follow the pattern that Syria has,” he warned.

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Sayed Abbas Araghchi, Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied any Iranian involvement in the Turkey unrests.

Some Turkish media quoted an unknown source that Turkish police have arrested an Iranian national named Shayan Shamloo in connection with demonstrations in the capital city of Ankara.

“We were informed about the report by media,” Araghchi said on Wednesday, “We officially asked Turkish government to explains about accuracy of this report and if his Iranian nationality is confirmed, [the government should] let Iranian consulate to access the arrested man.”

Iranian consulate in Istanbul issued a warning for Iranian tourists to avoid the areas of unrest.

Later today, Iranian state TV reported arrest of an Iranian tourist in Istanbul.

Iranian officials described the crisis in Turkey as an internal affair and asked Turkish leaders to solve the crisis through peaceful measures

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Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi said in the conference of the Friends of Syria on Wednesday that Syria is disintegrating and continuity of the current situation is threatening the regional stability.

“We strongly condemn the aggression of the Zionist regime on Syrian soil. We reject military intervention and we support the Geneva conference for peacefully resolving this crisis. The people of Syria are waiting for UN efforts to fight terrorism,” Salehi said.

“On political solution for the Syrian crisis, we accede to Iran,” a representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told during the conference, according Iranian Nasim news agency.

Iran is hosting the Friends of Syria Conference in the capital, Tehran, with the participation of representatives from 40 countries as well as heads of regional and international organizations.

The event, which is held under the banner of “Political Solution, Regional Stability,” seeks to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.

Sayed Abbas Araghchi, Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in sideline of the conference that none of opposition groups invited to the conference.

“This meeting is aimed at materializing this political solution and assisting constructive efforts at regional matter. The proposal has to be looked into and if accepted we can set up contact group,” Salehi said.

“Any action must focus on eliminating the terrorism. We should stop delivering arms to Syria and protect the borders of the country. This requires multi-faceted effort from neighboring countries,” Salehi said.

“Thousands of hospitals and schools have been destroyed. Kidnappings and sexual violence are widespread. Syria is disintegrating in front of our eyes. It is threatening regional stability.”

The meeting in Tehran comes as Russia and the United States have also agreed to convene an international conference on Syria in Geneva. However, no date has been set for the meeting yet.

Russia has said that it is imperative for Iran to join a proposed peace conference on Syria despite reservations from some Western nations.

“The issue of Iran is key for us,” said Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, while on a visit to Paris on Tuesday. “Iran, without question, is one of the most important nations.”

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly expressed its opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, stressing that inclusive dialog and national reconciliation as well as free elections are the keys to resolving the unrest in the Arab country.

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“Iran’s Mission in Geneva has an active and effective participation in all topics related to the disarmament initiatives around the world,” said Sayed Abbas Araghchi, Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry in a press conference on Tuesday.

“We will continue to this effective and strong presence and others’ pressures or absence is not a matter of us,” he said.

The United States said Monday it will refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the U.N. forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it’s chaired by Iran because countries under U.N. sanctions shouldn’t be allowed to hold such positions.

Erin Pelton, the spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations, said in a statement issued on Monday that the US would not send its ambassador to the conference.

The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is the world’s most important disarmament negotiating forum. Though members have been divided in recent years, the conference and its predecessors have negotiated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Iran, which frequently calls for the elimination of all the weapons of mass destruction in the world, will accede to the rotating presidency of the 65-nation conference based in Geneva on May 27 and hand it over to another country on June 23.

US repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. 

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. 

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production. 

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“Tomorrow Mr. Jalili will meet Catherine Ashton in Istanbul as a step of the negotiations,” Said Araghchi who is also the in a Press Conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

Araghchi who is a member of Iranian nuclear negotiating team expressed hope that “Ashton gives Iran positive answers in her meeting [with Dr. Jalili] tomorrow and [the P5+1] have met Iran’s proposal in a constructive manner.

“I believe the election generally will have some effects on the negotiations but none of Iran’s principal policies will change,” he said.

The EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Secretary of Iranian Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili will meet in Iran’s consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday.

The talks come whereas Ashton was supposed to consult with the P5+1 foreign ministers and inform the group of Iran’s proposals, while Iran has received no response about its offers one month after talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili has registered to stand in the June 14 presidential election.

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