Iran Press/ Iran news: The eighth round of talks on the removal of anti-Iranian sanctions resumed on Dec. 27 in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, and Iran negotiate in Vienna to bring back the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on track and remove the US sanctions against Iran.
Since the United States had withdrawn from the agreement, Iran decided that its representatives would not be present at the talks. Iran's agreement with the other JCPOA signatories would be transferred to them through an intermediary so; the United States is involved in the negotiations indirectly.
Speaking in his fourth TV interview, Ebrahim Raisi congratulated Women's Day and the Fajr celebration and said: "We have announced and we will announce again that if the parties are ready to lift the oppressive sanctions against the Iranian nation, there is an opportunity for any kind of agreement."
In response to the question of how the Vienna talks are going forward if America's request for direct talks is taken seriously and Iran's position, he stated: "This request is not new. This request has been made for a long time. Many of these countries that visit us carry a message that the Americans have sent to speak directly. This has been the case for a long time, maybe in previous administrations and in our administration, but so far there have been no negotiations with the Americans."
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Iran seeks balance in its international policies
The President added: "The government is pursuing a kind of balance in its international policies. Iran's trade and economic interaction with Tajikistan has tripled since my visit and we are eliminating the shortcomings."
The President referred to the imbalance in the international policies and added, "For example, as the country's political relations have been promoted in the international field, economic and trade relations and interactions have not been considered, and we have a kind of backwardness in this regard."
"Enormous trade and economic capacity can be established with our country's 15 neighbours," said the President.
The President added, "As stated in the news today, our country's relations with the Republic of Azerbaijan have been developed, and today, some shortcomings are being compensated, as well as our relations with Russia."
Iran-Russia on track of strategic relations
He also referred to his visit to Russia and the foreign policy approach of the 13th government, saying: "Many activities and efforts have been made in international policies in the Islamic Republic, but many areas have not been as balanced as political areas."
"Iran's trade capacity with Russia is not what we see today," he said, adding: "The volume of over $3 billion dollars of trade relations between the two countries today could easily reach $10 billion. We can import many goods from Russia, and we also have many agricultural products and goods that can be exported to the Russian market."
The President added: "There is cooperation with the Russians in the fields of transit, transportation, energy, agriculture, industry, aerospace, and various other fields."
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"There are many capacities in both countries and these capacities can be exchanged. We have advantages in our country that Russia needs, and there are advantages that can be used by us," he said.
In response to the question regarding a balanced policy in foreign policy, Raisi said: "Negotiations have begun, and the government's foreign policy in various fields is active, but there is no such thing as saying that negotiations solve everything. We negotiate, but not everything is a negotiation."
Raisi added: "The government operates in two areas. One; neutralising sanctions, and two; lifting sanctions. One of the ways to neutralise sanctions is to have relations with our neighbours, and Russia is one of Iran's great neighbours, so we cannot ignore having economic, trade, and many relations that we can have with each other as an independent and capable country."
He added: "The basis of our work is interaction with the whole world. I announced this in the election campaign, and I will follow this, we will interact with all the countries of the world that want to interact with us, but the countries that want to oppose us, naturally, we will resist them. But what we have in our foreign policy program is interaction with all countries."
Regarding his visit to Russia, including how he was received and prayed at the Kremlin, the President said: "If the product of a trip is a smile, then nothing will happen to people's benefit. The result of the trip should be the development of relations in the fields of energy, agriculture, industry and people's lives. What we care about is people's interests, that is, what we pursued in Russia during the three-hour meeting with Mr Putin was from the beginning to the end, bilateral, regional and international issues cantered on the interests of the Iranian people."
Raisi added: "Since we had common positions on international issues, it was planned how to pursue the work, and so were those sections that dealt with domestic issues."
"Mr Lavrov had told Mr Amirabdollahian that immediately after our meeting, Mr Putin had instructed the ministers that the decisions we had made with the Iranian President should be implemented immediately. I also instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, the Minister of Petroleum and the relevant ministers to immediately implement the agreements we had so that their effects on the economy and various issues would be clarified."
Referring to the Iran-Russia consensus on the need to break the dollar's dominance over the two countries' monetary and financial transactions, the President said: "Mr Putin and I agreed that we could do a lot of trade between the two countries with the national currency. We had good agreements in the fields of defence, security, aerospace and other areas of mutual interest."
Raisi stated: "Today in Bushehr, except for the first phase of the nuclear power plant, which has been put into operation, we are following the implementation of phases two and three with the Russians."
He added: "Accelerating the implementation of these plans was one of the issues raised. Exports of agricultural products to Russia and imports of strategic goods from Russia with regard to the elimination of tariffs were also among the issues discussed, and given the positive view of the Russians on this issue, it could expand bilateral trade."
Referring to the importance of activating the North-South Corridor to facilitate and expand Iran's economic cooperation with neighboring countries, including Russia, the President noted: "In addition to these, various decisions regarding securing people's interests and the country's economic development in line with the neighborhood diplomacy was adopted."
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Raisi said: "Regional issues, including the developments in Syria and the Caucasus, were also among the topics discussed with the Russian President, which was pursued in line with the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
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