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Iran dismisses US talks offer as Trump reimposes sanctions
TEHRAN, Aug 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Iran dismissed a US offer to renegotiate a
historic 2015 nuclear deal signed with other major powers as President Donald
Trump reimposed crippling sanctions on Tuesday.
Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May has infuriated European
partners who were determined to keep it alive and now find their businesses
operating in Iran faced with the threat of US legal penalties.
The sanctions that went into effect on Tuesday target Iranian access to US
banknotes and key economic sectors including cars and carpets.
Much of the damage has already been done, with Trump’s aggressive rhetoric
fuelling a run on the rial in recent months, while worsening inflation has
stoked public protests against the government’s management of the economy
that have intensified over the past week.
Most Iranians see US hostility as a basic fact of life, so their
frustration is largely directed at their own leaders for not handling the
situation better.
“Prices have been increasing for three or four months and everything we
need has become so expensive, even before sanctions returned,” said Yasaman,
a 31-year-old photographer in Tehran.
He said Iran’s leaders may need to “drink the poison cup” and negotiate
with the US.
In a statement on Monday just hours before the sanctions went back into
force, Trump said: “The Iranian regime faces a choice.
“Either change its threatening, destabilising behaviour and reintegrate
with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.
“I remain open to reaching a more comprehensive deal that addresses the
full range of the regime’s malign activities, including its ballistic missile
programme and its support for terrorism,” Trump said.
But his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani dismissed the idea of talks
while crippling sanctions were in force.
“If you’re an enemy and you stab the other person with a knife, and then
you say you want negotiations, then the first thing you have to do is remove
the knife,” he told state television. “They want to launch psychological
warfare against the Iranian nation,” Rouhani said. “Negotiations with
sanctions doesn’t make sense.”
– Rial rally –
Iran’s currency has lost around half its value since Trump announced the US
would withdraw from the nuclear pact.
But the last two days have seen an impressive 20 percent rally in the value
of the rial after the government announced new foreign exchange rules and
launched a corruption crackdown that included the arrest of the central
bank’s currency chief.
The new rules allow unlimited tax-free currency and gold imports, and
reopen exchange bureaus after a disastrous attempt to fix the value of the
rial in April backfired spectacularly with corrupt traders making a fortune
out of a mushrooming black market.
MORE/MSY/1338 hrs
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Iran is also taking solace in the fact that most of the world strongly
opposes Trump’s policy, with China, India and Turkey all saying they are
unwilling to substantially cut purchases from Iran when the US reimposes
sanctions on the energy sector on November 5.
The European Union’s diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said the bloc
deeply regrets the US move.
“We are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in
legitimate business with Iran,” she said in a statement co-signed by the
foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters the global
reaction to Trump’s move showed that the US was diplomatically “isolated,”
but acknowledged the sanctions “may cause some disruption.”
– ‘Severe consequences’ –
Many large European firms are leaving Iran for fear of US penalties, and
Trump warned of “severe consequences” for firms and individuals that
continued to do business with Iran.
The US sees the sanctions “as a tool to pressure Iran to come back to the
negotiating table to rehash the nuclear deal on terms more to Trump’s liking.
That is not going to happen,” said John Glaser of the Cato Institute.
Two countries that have welcomed the tough new US policy are Iran’s
regional rivals, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the renewed sanctions as
“an important moment for Israel, for the US, for the region, for the whole
world.”
There have been rumours that Trump and Rouhani could meet in New York in
September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly — though Rouhani
reportedly rejected US overtures for a meeting at last year’s event.
There was little word of fresh protests after days of unrest in Mashhad,
Isfahan and other major cities — although verifying information remains
difficult due to severe reporting restrictions.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1338 hrs