Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi made the remarks in his weekly press conference on Monday, adding “North Korea’s recent nuclear tests have caused some amount of concern on the international scene, but the remarks by some media about cooperation between Iran and North Korea are completely rash and far from reality. Iran has had no cooperation with North Korea in this regard and our position on the use of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction is completely clear.”
About the possibility of US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, he said “JCPOA is not a bilateral agreement but an international one; if any party to the deal fails to comply with their commitments, they will have to pay a heavy price.”
“Iran will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal, but will have an appropriate response toward any side that undermines it,” he stressed.
On the occasion of the September 11 attacks on the US, Ghasemi said “one important thing was that a number of courts in the US accused a certain country of meddling in the events, but of course due to the new trade interests formed in the US, the matter was shoved to the side.”
He went on to add, “I hope whatever has been decided by the US courts for recognition of the rights of victims and their families will see results and that we will never see the occurrence of such attacks anywhere else in the world.”
About the US recent strategy in Afghanistan which prolongs the stay and increases the number of American troops there, Ghasemi maintained that the issue was raised in the meeting between Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministers today, adding “we believe in a non-military approach to Afghanistan. All neighboring countries must endeavor to return Afghanistan to its stable and secure state.”
He went on to add, “the presence of foreign actors in Afghanistan has had negative outcomes. They need to reduce their undue interventions there and allow the people to decide for the future of their own country.”
About the planned independence referendum of the Iraqi Kurdish Region on Sept. 25, Ghasemi said “we would like to see the continuation of talks between Erbil and Baghdad, and hopefully the negotiations will yield positive results and Iraq’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty will be preserved.”
He went on to add, “Iran has good relations with the Kurds and other ethnic groups in Iraq and will try to use this capacity to prevent some destructive crises in the region.”
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