Iran Press/America: Without providing any evidence, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claimed there are "serious concerns" about Iran's destabilizing activities, including "supporting terrorism, the ballistic missile program, and arbitrarily detaining of foreign nationals including the American citizens."
There have always been baseless allegations made by US officials against Iran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but after Iran's nuclear deal with the P5+1 in 2015, the US administration tried to link non-nuclear issues to the deal to prevent military progress and an increase in Iran's power in the region.
In fact, this was one of the main reasons and excuses for the US withdrawal from the JCPOA; the Donald Trump administration claimed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement did not cover Iran's missile program and could not prevent Iran's activities in the region. The US administration unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 under this pretext.
With taking in the office of a new US administration led by Joe Biden, he has claimed that he wants to return to the JCPOA agreement. So far, six rounds of talks aimed at lifting sanctions and returning the United States to the agreement have been held in Vienna, but have not been successful due to continued pressure and the application of US sanctions policy.
One of the differences that has led to the failure of the Vienna talks is the Americans' attempt to tie issues such as Iran's regional activities and defense and missile developments to the nuclear issue and the JCPOA, which is in fact an attempt to force in the Islamic Republic of Iran to accept a new agreement.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated in August about this goal of the United States: "The Americans in words promises that they will lift the sanctions, but they did not lift the sanctions and do not lift them, while, they make a condition and say that you should include a sentence in the same agreement that some issues will be discussed later, otherwise we will not have an agreement."
"The United States and the West have shown in recent talks that they continue to look to the nuclear deal as a bridge to other unrelated issues, such as regional issues and missiles," said Kazem Gharibabadi, a former Iranian ambassador to the Vienna-based international organizations.
"The United States wants to hold the nuclear deal hostage over Iran's missile and regional activities," he added.
It is obvious that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the aim of the Vienna talks to be the complete and effective lifting of sanctions and the commitment of the Western parties, especially the United States, to fulfill their obligations and end the breach of the JCPOA and accordingly, they will not negotiate on issues other than the nuclear issue, including regional policy and defense activities.
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In this regard, Ali Bagheri Kani, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, emphasized: "The defense capability of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a national decision and is related to Iran's national interests and security, so no country has the right to speak or comment on this."
After 13 years of intensive international negotiations, the JCPOA, was concluded on July 14, 2015. One week later, UN Security Council ratified Resolution No. 2231 and attached to Annex A of the resolution.
Yet, after Donald Trump took office as the US President in January 2017 and took a few preliminary steps to fulfill the deal, he unilaterally withdrew from the agreement on May 8, 2018, and introduced the harshest sanctions in history against Iran in line with his 'maximum pressure' campaign against the Islamic Republic.
In a counter-sanctions measure, Iran's Supreme National Security Council started a series of scale-backs measures to stop the implementation of voluntary commitments to the JCPOA, within the framework of the very deal.
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