Tehran, Sep 3: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ruled out bilateral talks with the United States on Tuesday, threatening to further reduce Tehran’s obligations to the 2015 landmark International Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty within a few days.
According to news reports, during a parliament address, Rouhani stated any bilateral talks with Washington would have to fall in-between the world powers’ group’s framework on board with the INF treaty list.
He also said Tehran was prepared to further reduce its compliance to the pact “in the coming days” if the ongoing negotiations with the European countries yield no progress by Thursday.
“Maybe there has been a misunderstanding. We’ve said it several times and we repeat it – there has been no decision to hold bilateral talks with the US,” said Rouhani.
“In principle, we don’t want bilateral talks with the United States,” the official government website has quoted Rouhani as saying.
“If the United States lifts all sanctions, it would be possible to talk (to them) during 5+1 meetings as in the past,” he said, in reference to the world powers in INF Treaty negotiation.
“We have received several proposals (to have talks with the United States) and our answer has always been negative,” the Iranian president said.
Tehran has already hiked its uranium enrichment process and stockpiles, and Rouhani stated on Tuesday the “third step will be enacted in the coming days”.
He said, “If by Thursday these negotiations yield no results, we will announce the third step of the reduction of our commitment.”
Rouhani, however, said Iran’s countermeasures were reversible and that the steps have been taken in such a way it does not take much time to return to the beginning point.
He also expressed regret over the EU countries’ failure to complete their pledges taken under negotiations.
“Unfortunately after the US betrayal … the Europeans haven’t acted on their commitments or couldn’t … in some cases, they could have acted but did not,” he said.
“We can continue negotiations even after the third step,” he added.
Rouhani has also held a series of telephonic conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron in the recent weeks aimed at secure the INF Treaty.