TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday that Tehran believes in “dialogue” and “logic”, but U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have not acted in good faith, which is an essential prerequisite for dialogue, the Foreign Ministry website reported on Wednesday.

Commenting on Trump’s Monday call for holding talks with Iran without any preconditions, Qassemi said, “We must see whether the U.S. president, after getting frustrated with his own unproductive rhetoric, has genuinely decided to stop the language of threat against the Iranian people.”

However, the spokesman continued, the remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shortly after Mr. Trump’s speech were indeed a sign of confusion and chaos in U.S. foreign policy.

“Mr. Trump’s call for dialogue with Iran comes while the U.S. government, without any justification and in contradiction to all international norms, has withdrawn from the nuclear deal and re-imposed its unfair sanctions on the Iranian people,” he added.

It came after Trump said he is ready to meet his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, “any time they want to”, contradicting his earlier threats against Tehran as well as pulling Washington out of the 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions.

Qassemi further said the Islamic Republic of Iran has in practice proved that “it believes in dialogue and logic, and if it accepts an obligation, it will adhere to it.”

He went on to say, “But can Mr. Trump make such claim as well? Dialogue demands certain conditions and requirements, no sign of which has been witnessed in the words and conduct of Mr. Trump and his colleagues so far.”

“How can he prove to the Iranian people that his Monday night remarks showed his true will and were not demagogic?” he asked. 

Proving the opposite, he said, the U.S. Treasury Department’s delegates go from one country to another, forcing them to stop economic and trade ties with Iran.

Qassmi further clarified that “sanctions” and “pressure” are at odds with holding negotiations, which require mutual respect and adherence to international obligations.

MH/PA