Trump’s claims of Iran seeking talks ‘false dreams’: Ministry

Iran has categorically dismissed Donald Trump’s new claims that Tehran is after talks with Washington, saying the US president is only giving voice to his “false and unattainable dreams.”

Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday that Trump’s “dreams have nothing to do with the existing realities” after the US president said Iran wanted to hold talks with America.

“They (Iran) are not doing well. They want to talk (with US),” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday, claiming that the Iranian economy had been badly hit due to his sanctions.

“He knows that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been faced and familiar with American pressures and sanction policies for decades,” Qassemi said.

Last year, Trump withdrew the US from an international nuclear deal with Iran and imposed sanctions on the country. As part of building pressure, he has asked countries to bring down their purchase of Iranian oil to zero.

Qassemi said Trump “should know that the Iranian nation will never bow to the oppressive US pressures, least of all to the rulers who choose sanctions over respect and walls over bridges.”

“Throughout their turbulent but proud history, Iranians have learned how to resist expansionists and bullies and defeat those hostile to Iran,” he added.

Senior Iranian officials have already rejected Trump’s offer of talks without preconditions, saying his words contradicted his action of reimposing sanctions on Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said Trump’s repudiation of the 2015 nuclear deal was “illegal” and Iran would not easily yield to Washington’s renewed campaign to strangle Iran’s oil exports.

Rouhani: Sanctions have no effect on Iran economy

President Hassan Rouhani says the US administration is seeking to exert pressure on the Iranian people through imposing sanctions that he said would affect their livelihood.

Last May, Trump pulled the United States out of the multilateral deal concluded before he took office, later saying that he would be willing to meet Rouhani to discuss how to improve relations.

His White House, however, has said the call for negotiation did not mean the United States would lift sanctions or re-establish diplomatic and commercial relations.

US officials have also launched repeated volleys of rhetorical assault on Iran, with Trump himself calling the country a “terrorist nation” and promised unspecified backing for groups with a history of terrorism, such as the MKO.

Qassemi on Monday said Trump echoed “the same excessive and exorbitant demands by medieval and archaic powers.”

Denouncing Trump’s new remarks, the spokesman said, “As always, without education about the history of developments of recent decades and review of the utterly false policies of his predecessors on the region and Iran, he has made again some irrational statements out of spite against the people of this ancient land.”

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington’s tough sanctions against the Islamic Republic were aimed at giving the Iranian people a chance to have better lives.

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani told a security conference in Tehran Monday that the US is not trustworthy as he also dismissed claims of Iranian request for negotiations.

“Iran has not sent any signal or message for negotiations with the US and the Americans have proven that they are not reliable. The history of negotiations also confirms this,” he said.

“Another issue is that it is the Americans – and not the Islamic Republic of Iran – who send messages and announce through their representatives that they are ready for negotiations with Iran,” he added.