Iran Will Never Negotiate With US After Soleimani Killing - Supreme Leader's Adviser

Iran Will Never Negotiate With US After Soleimani Killing - Supreme Leader's Adviser

Iran will never agree to negotiate with the United States after the US killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in early January, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday

TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2020) Iran will never agree to negotiate with the United States after the US killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in early January, Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday.

The statement came in light of a recent interview of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine in which he said that he never ruled out the possibility of talks with the US after the assassination of the top Iranian commander. In particular, the minister added that Washington could lift the sanctions against the country and return to the negotiating table. The statement reportedly caused protests outside the Iranian Foreign Ministry with demonstrators demanding the resignation of Zarif.

"Under no circumstances will the Iranian nation stoop to such humiliation, this nation will not negotiate with the one who ordered the murder of an official, who was on an official visit in another country," Dehghan said, as quoted by Iran's Tasnim news agency.

Following Zarif's remark regarding the possibility of US-Iran negotiations, US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter "No Thanks!" in response to the minister's proposal to lift sanctions and resume negotiations. In return, the Iranian minister explained his stance on the matter, saying that "the only possible venue for talks is at the P5+1 table," which Trump left. He added that the US needed to return to "pre-2017" conditions, namely lift the sanctions.

Tensions between the two countries escalated when the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions on Iran shortly thereafter. A year later, Tehran responded by steadily abandoning its JCPOA obligations every 60 days. On Sunday, Iran announced that it had dropped out of all commitments and therefore had no more restrictions on its nuclear program.

In addition, the US' killing of the top Iranian general near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad triggered a new wave of escalation, which included Iran's move to launch ballistic missile strikes on Iraqi military bases housing US and NATO-allied troops.