In an interview with CBS News, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted that Iran's government has no preference between President Donald Trump or Biden.
He stressed, however, that it's not what the new administration says during the campaign that counts, but what it does in office, CBS News reported.
"What is important for us is how the White House behaves after the election, not what promises are there, what slogans are made. The behavior of the US is important. If the US decides to stop its malign behavior against Iran, then it will be a different story no matter who sits in the White House," the US-educated diplomat said.
"If we wanted to do that [renegotiate], we would have done it with President Trump four years ago," Zarif told CBS News, adding that "under no circumstances" would Tehran consider renegotiating the terms of a deal which has since been adopted as a United Nations Security Council Resolution.
Iran's government has no preference between President Donald Trump or Biden.
Zarif was categorical that Iran would, instead, like to see the US re-join the deal.
"We can find a way to reengage, obviously. But reengagement does not mean renegotiation," he said. "It means the US coming back to the negotiating table."
"It has hurt Iran," he conceded. "But it hasn't brought the type of political change that the US desired — be it regime change, which was the desire of a certain segment of the current US administration, or what President Trump wanted, which was to bring Iran to its knees so that he could dictate his terms of negotiations."
"I know that Vice President Biden understands that that won't happen [renegotiate the terms of the nuclear deal], and may act differently," said the Iranian foreign minister. He expressed hope, however, that Mr. Trump, too, "is capable of acting differently."
Zarif also addressed assertions from US intelligence agencies that his country obtained the US voter registration information and used it to try to erode confidence in the American election process. He categorically denied any interference by Iran, and called President Trump "the single person who is making the most important and effective affront against the US electoral system."
Anyone interested in undermining US democracy, Zarif suggested, "will just ask President Trump to continue talking about forgeries and inconsistencies in mail-in ballots and all sorts of other stuff."
Zarif said the Iranian government received a letter from the Trump administration, which the White House has yet to confirm, warning the country not to take action around the election, and that the US would not tolerate any interference.
FA/PR