Highlighting Iran’s focus on “field and diplomacy” as two components of power, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council emphasized that the Islamic Republic would neither trust the West nor the East.
“Field and Diplomacy – as two components of Iran’s power – are used proportionally and judiciously to protect our security & national interests,” Ali Shamkhani said in a post on his Twitter account on Sunday.
“40 years of experience has taught our people that relying on Western or Eastern powers will guarantee neither our rights nor our security,” he added.
His comments came amid a series of marathon negotiations in Vienna with the purpose of reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran and the remaining participants to the JCPOA have been holding talks in Vienna since April last year with the aim of reviving the deal by bringing the US into full compliance.
The US left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump. The Vienna talks began on a promise by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, to rejoin the deal and repeal the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Biden, however, has so far failed to undo Trump’s own undoing of Barack Obama’s Iran policy, which led to the JCPOA in June 2015.
The eighth round of the Vienna talks began on December 27 with a focus on the removal of all sanctions that the United States had imposed on Iran after its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA. The US is not allowed to directly attend the talks due to its pullout in 2018 from the deal with Iran.
Source: Iranian media (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
