“The Islamic Republic of Iran did not decline Europeans’ request [for negotiations], because we did not want to make the atmosphere even more tense than it already was and take the same approach as the US,” said Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday.
He went on to stress that the negotiations with the European sides to the nuclear deal are still ongoing, adding “however, we cannot count on how successful the end results of the talks with Europe would be, which there are various reasons for it.”
“At any rate, we cannot tie Iran’s fate to mere promises,” Larijani stressed.
Iran tried all possible ways to prevent the enemies from causing troubles, but they kept violating their commitments anyway, Larijani added.
US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was withdrawing from the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the US, UK, France, Russia and China - plus Germany in 2015.
Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions and impose “the highest level” of economic bans on Iran.
Since the US pullout, the European sides to the deal have been scrambling to persuade Iran to stay in the deal by providing a package of proposals that would ensure Iran’s economic interests in the face of US sanctions.
While the first batch of US sanctions will "snap back" in August, France says, however, that Europe is unlikely to put together the package for Iran before November.
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