Expert-level meetings were also held both bilaterally and within the framework of the three working groups.
During the Friday meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, the participants decided that the negotiations and consultations continue intensively and in a faster pace. Hence, several continuous meetings are held every day at different levels among Iran and the P4+1.
In this phone call, the two foreign ministers also agreed that, should the UN Security Council fail to make an effective decision against the usurping Zionist regime’s aggression in its today’s meeting, Iran and Turkey would pursue the issue within the framework of the mechanisms of the United Nations General Assembly and the extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Zarif and Cavusoglu also stressed the need for close consultations between Tehran and Ankara in this regard.
During the phone call, Haniyeh also asked Foreign Minister Zarif for Iran’s support for the Palestinian people’s resistance.
The Iranian foreign minister, in turn, reaffirmed Iran’s solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine, and condemned the usurping and brutish Zionist regime’s measures against the fasting people of Palestine as well as its attack against Al-Aqsa Mosque and martyring and wounding defenceless worshippers.
Zarif reiterated Iran’s all-out support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause.
He also briefed Haniyeh on his consultations with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on supporting the Palestinian people’s resistance at the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
In the phone call, Foreign Minister Zarif highlighted the Iraqi government’s duty to ensure the security of diplomatic sites in the country, and requested the Baghdad government to seriously pursue and identify the perpetrators of such unlawful moves.
He also expressed hope that such incidents would not happen again with the seriousness of the Iraqi government and the forces responsible for maintaining the country’s security.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister, in turn, expressed regret about such violent acts, and reiterated the Iraqi government’s commitment to ensuring the security of diplomats and diplomatic sites in the Arab country.
Foreign Minister Hussein said that he has already issued orders to tighten the security measures.
In the meeting with the Iraqi ambassador to Tehran, the director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Protocols Department condemned the attack, and urged the Baghdad government to maintain security measures and arrangements in order to protect Iran’s diplomatic sites according to the 1963 Vienna Convention.
The Iraqi envoy, in turn, said the government of his country, as the host nation, is committed to ensuring the security and safety of the sites of foreign missions.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh had told reporters that Iran late Sunday handed over a “letter of protest” to the Iraqi embassy in Tehran and urged the neighbouring Arab nation to pursue the case under international conventions.
“Iran strongly condemns attacks on its diplomatic sites in Iraq,” said Khatibzadeh in a weekly briefing in Tehran.
A day earlier, Iraqi protesters set fire to trailers belonging to Iran’s consulate in Karbala amid widespread anger over the killing of Ehab Wazni, an activist who took part in anti-government protests that swept Iraq in October 2019. He was shot overnight Saturday outside his home by unknown assailants.
In a press briefing on Monday, Sima-Sadat Lari reported 18,408 new cases of COVID-19 infection, raising the total number of cases to 2,673,219.
So far, Lari added, 2,127,192 patients have recovered from the disease or been discharged from the hospital.
Lari said 5,533 patients are also in critical conditions caused by more severe infection.
The spokeswoman noted that 17,206,735 COVID-19 tests have been taken across the country so far.
She said 1,469,701 people have so far received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 290,347 have received the second dose.
“Within the framework of its commitments, the United States has already accepted the majority of what it is supposed to do and what we definitely deem necessary,” Khatibzadeh told reporters in a virtual news conference on Monday.
“Regarding the demands the US has not accepted to meet, we have declared all the items listed by Iran are the sanctions which were imposed with the aim of destroying the JCPOA and depriving Iran of the benefits of the deal,” he noted.
Therefore, he added, irrespective of the partial, individual or collective nature of the sanctions, Iran has declared its final opinion and will seriously pursue it.
He said once Iran verifies the removal of all US sanctions and that it can reap the benefits of the lifting of bans, the Islamic Republic will definitely live up to its commitments under the JCPOA, nothing more or less.
“Washington has yet to make that decision, and is still pinning its hope on the inauspicious and failed legacy of Donald Trump.
However, it is not a hard decision for Washington, and it can make its decision by complying with the international law and with its own signature,” the spokesman added.
He also pointed to Iran’s chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi’s interview with NHK, in which he said Tehran will probably renew its deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until a deal is reached on the revival of the JCPOA, and said, “The law passed by Iran’s Parliament is binding, and the May 30 deadline for the Iran-IAEA deal is final.”
“Naturally, as we are no in rush to bring the talks to a conclusion and as we will prevent the talks from being protracted, we don’t want any date to prevent our negotiating team from implementing all the directions issued in Tehran,” he added.
Khatibzadeh said Iran and the IAEA can extend the deadline if the negotiations are in the right direction, but the decision is not made by the nuclear negotiating team, but by the officials in Tehran.
The intensive talks come as the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive of Action (JCPOA) has stressed that the trend of negotiations should be expedited.
Intensive consultations were held yesterday and today between Abbas Araqchi, the head of the Iranian negotiating team, and his counterparts leading the other delegations at the talks.
Araqchi’s consultations included a meeting with Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora and a four-way discussion with the three European countries present at the talks.
Bilateral and multilateral negotiations have also been going on at the experts’ level within the framework of three working groups discussing sanctions, nuclear issues and practical arrangements.
Accordingly, bilateral meetings were held yesterday between expert teams from Iran, and Russia and China.
A bilateral meeting was also held today at the experts’ level between Iran and Russia.
Yesterday’s talks continued into the night.
Today, the two sides will move forward with their consultations in a bid to narrow differences over the texts as much as possible.
Addressing a meeting with Shiite and Sunni scholars as well as academics at Iran’s Consulate General in the Afghan city of Herat on Saturday night, Mohammad-Ebrahim Taherian also condoled, on behalf of Iranians, with the Afghan government and nation over the tragic event, and described the attacks as very tragic and sorrowful.
The special envoy expressed hope that war and violence in Afghanistan will soon come to an end, so that the Muslim community and Afghan people will not see such catastrophes and incidents in the holy month of Ramadan.
He said the way to establish peace and security in Afghanistan is through cooperation among all Afghan groups.
He added Iran has always tried to help establish understanding, maintain achievements and spur development in Afghanistan by trying to build a national consensus in the country.
Iran’s first red line is the removal of all sanctions, including those mentioned in the JCPOA and those enforced by Donald Trump, Qalibaf was quoted as saying in a closed session of the Parliament on Sunday.
According to Alireza Salimi, a member of the Parliament’s presiding board, Qalibaf said verification of the removal of the US sanctions is the second red line.
The third red line, Qalibaf said, is the issue of negotiation with the US. “Before the removal of all sanctions, we shouldn’t hold any negotiation with the US.”
The Parliament Speaker said the fourth red line is the law passed by the lawmakers regarding the nuclear program, which must be enforced by the government in the negotiations.
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