US Return to JCPOA Is Ticket to Talks with Iran: Zarif

“The United States is engaged in an economic war against the Iranian people and it won’t be possible for us to engage with the United States unless they stop imposing a war and engaging in economic terrorism against the Iranian people,” Zarif told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

“So if they want to come back into the room there is a ticket that they need to purchase and that ticket is to observe the agreement,” he noted, referring to the JCPOA, the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Zarif said Iran does not want to meet for the sake of meeting. “We need to meet if there is a result,” he said.

Trump said this week he would meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani under the right circumstances to end the confrontation over the 2015 deal and that talks were underway to see how countries could open credit lines to keep Iran’s economy afloat.

Rouhani has said Iran would not talk to the United States until all sanctions were lifted.

Zarif also said Iran will fast track legal action against a British oil tanker that Tehran seized last month in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We will expedite the legal process for the British tanker that is now in our custody after they basically committed sea crimes by taking our ship,” he said, adding that Iran will not be lenient about ships in the Persian Gulf that violate laws.

“We have been lenient about ships in the Persian Gulf. They break laws about communication about sea lanes, about discharge of waste. Now there is no reason to be lenient with those who violate international laws,” Zarif said.

The UK-flagged Stena Impero was diverted to an Iranian port on July 19, two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar.