Iran Press/ Asia: President Ebrahim Raisi made the remarks in an interview with Qatar's Al Jazeera television network on Thursday.
No direct talks between Iran, US
When asked about the potential of direct talks between Iran and the United States over the nuclear deal, he said, "Direct talks with the US over the deal is of no avail."
Raisi also censured a raft of new sanctions that Washington has imposed on Iran, asking, "If Washington is after an agreement, why does it apply new sanctions during the course of the nuclear talks?"
He noted, "We are determined to put up a decisive defense of Iran's and its people's rights" during the negotiations.
He added potential fresh removal of the American sanctions has to be accompanied by relevant "guarantees."
Time and again, Iranian officials have asserted that upon lifting the sanctions, Washington should be able to guarantee that it would not return the bans.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the president insisted that the "safeguard issues" between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), must be resolved for the talks to move on.
Iran ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970, which requires non-nuclear-weapon states to accept comprehensive safeguards that the UN agency demands.
Also, as a goodwill gesture, Iran voluntarily cooperated extensively with the IAEA beyond the safeguards agreement.
Back in June, Tehran decided to stop the voluntary cooperation while stressing that its commitments under the agreement would continue.
Iran and the IAEA are currently locked in a dispute triggered by the agency's Israeli-influenced accusations, which were leveled against Tehran's peaceful nuclear activities just as the Islamic Republic and other parties to the Iran deal appeared close to an agreement on reviving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran asserts that an agreement on the revival of the nuclear deal hinges on settling safeguards issues between Tehran and the IAEA and that reviving the accord makes no sense without resolving those issues.
West has to confront nuke-armed Israel
Raisi also said the West has to ask the Israeli regime to stop its nuclear weapon program instead of picking on Iran over its peaceful nuclear activities.
"Before asking us to stop our nuclear activities, the West has to make this demand on the Israel regime that owns weapons of mass murder," he stated.
The occupying regime, which pursues a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear weapons, is estimated to have 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, making it the sole possessor of the non-conventional arms in West Asia.
The occupying entity has, however, refused to either allow inspections of its military nuclear facilities or sign the NPT. A total of 191 countries, including Iran, have joined the international pact, founded in 1970 to promote peaceful nuclear energy programs and pursue atomic disarmament worldwide.
Iran, Saudi Arabia seek to solve differences
Raisi touched on ongoing talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia that seek to mend the differences between the two sides.
Riyadh ruptured its diplomatic ties with Tehran in early 2016 following demonstrations held in front of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and its Consulate in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad by angry protesters censuring the Al Saud family for its earlier killing of the top Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
"Talks with Saudi Arabia continues. We have held five rounds of talks and will continue to hold more," the president said.
Political stalemate in Iraq
Addressing Iraq's drawn-out failure to form a government, Raisi said, "We would be delighted to witness [formation of] a strong government in Iraq."
The Arab country has been without a government since parliamentary elections in October. Lawmakers faithful to influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr exceeded their fellow aspirants in the polls by winning as many as 73 seats.
The seats are, however, not enough to give them the mandate to break the impasse. Sadr has said he would not team up with any other bloc to form an alliance that could throw its support behind a new prime minister.
Raisi said European countries had approached the Islamic Republic concerning the Iraqi crisis, saying, "We told them that this issue concerns the Iraqis."
The Iranian president also said, "The region's problems would be solvable if foreign forces stopped their interference [in the regional affairs]," adding, "The Iraqis should not allow the Americans' presence [in their country]."
In January 2020, the Iraqi parliament approved a law mandating the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the US from the Arab country's soil.
The legislation was passed after a US drone strike assassinated Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and deputy head of Iraq's anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, near Baghdad International Airport.
The popular commanders had played critical roles in eliminating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Yemen ceasefire
The Iranian president finally addressed the issue of an April-present ceasefire in Yemen.
Despite sporadic violations by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition, the truce has been almost holding, which began waging war on the Arab world's poorest nation in March 2015.
President Raisi said for the truce to enter a permanent state, the coalition had to lift a siege that it had been employing against Yemen since the onset of the invasion.
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