Shamkhani: Iran not after resuming diplomatic ties with US

Tehran will not seek resumption of diplomatic ties with the US although a comprehensive nuclear deal can help to melt some of the ice of bilateral mistrust, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said here. In his first interview to the international media, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said that Iran’s position in the region is strengthened after Tehran’s facilitating of a peaceful change of government in Baghdad last summer, as well as contributing to the survival of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

Iran and the US “can behave in a way that they do not use their energy against each other (in the region) and signing a nuclear agreement can be very crucial in this regard,” Shamkhani said in an interview with the British daily, the Financial Times in his office in central Tehran, published in the Monday edition of the newspaper. “Everything will depend on the honesty of the Americans in the nuclear talks,” he added. But when asked whether regular meetings between Iranian and American diplomats during the nuclear talks with six powers — the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany — could lead to a rapprochement between the two countries, he replied: “No. The nuclear negotiations are exclusively over the nuclear issue.”

Although he is not in charge of nuclear negotiations — unlike his predecessors — his position gives him a role in formulating decisions on the nuclear file. Mr Shamkhani dismissed suspicions voiced by western diplomats during nuclear talks that the Leader of Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei does not genuinely support a lasting nuclear deal. “If he was looking for an excuse to break off negotiations, there was enough time to do so over the past year-and-a-half of negotiations,” he said.

Iran would not buckle under international sanctions, he said, nor would it retreat from what it saw as its rights under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “We will not die if there is no agreement and we will not go to heaven if we reach an agreement,” he said.Turning to neighboring Iraq, where Iran and the US face a common enemy in the ISIS terrorists’ issue, Shamkhani refused to confirm reports of tacit cooperation with Washington.

Tehran “notifies” the US of its operations in support of Shiite militias through the Iraqi government, he said, but insists that US-led air strikes were ineffective. The change of government in Baghdad — after Tehran withdrew its support for Nouri al-Maliki, the former prime minister and backed Haider al-Abadi to replace him in August — has helped strengthen Iran’s position in the region, he said.