US President Donald Trump indirectly asked for negotiations with the Iranian side three times this year, but Tehran declined invitations, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2018) US President Donald Trump indirectly asked for negotiations with the Iranian side three times this year, but Tehran declined invitations, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday."Last year, the United States asked for negotiations with Iran eight times directly and this year, 3 times indirectly, but we did not accept their invitation to protect people's dignity," Rouhani said at a Student's Day ceremony in Semnan University of Medical Sciences, as quoted by his official website.
Rouhani did not specify on what issues the US side proposed to hold meetings.
Earlier in the year, Mahmoud Vaezi, the chief of staff of Iran's president, said that during Rouhani's visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly session in 2017, Trump had asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with him.
Relations between Washington and Tehran have been hostile for decades, with the United States designating Iran as one of the state sponsors of terrorism. The relations deteriorated even further after the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
The sanctions are aimed at exercising maximum pressure on Iran and force it to negotiate a new nuclear deal. As part of its campaign, US wants all countries to eventually reduce their Iranian oil imports to zero to damage the country's economy.
In September, Rouhani in his address at the UN General Assembly called on US to return to negotiations within the framework of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 on the Iranian nuclear program and to lift sanctions against Tehran.
