TEHRAN — The Foreign Ministry has dismissed speculation that it was in contact with the Biden team before or after the U.S. presidential election, saying Iran will not be in contact with anyone outside of issues completely related to the nuclear deal, also referred to as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran awaits the formation of the new administration in the U.S. to see what will happen.

“We should see where the measures of the U.S. will lead to,” he said. “It is measures that matter not words, analyses, and speculations.”

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has signaled that he will reenter the United States into the JCPOA, and criticized the incumbent President Donald Trump for withdrawing from the deal in a unilateral move.

Since withdrawing from the JCPOA, the Trump administration has slapped the harshest ever sanctions on Iran.

Spokesman Khatibzadeh went on to say that it is still too soon to air judgment on the incoming Biden administration, noting that Iran should only rely on domestic capacities in face of sanctions.

“Solutions are inside the country and let decision-making to proceed in its natural and logical way,” he suggested.

He also warned against partisan look at foreign policy. “The most dangerous thing is to have factional view toward foreign policy. The establishment’s top bodies decide about foreign policy.”

‘U.S. election carried message for regional states’
  
Khatibzadeh also said the United States’ presidential election had a message for the regional countries, which would take the risk of clinching enormous arms deals with his administration in the hope of buying security.

In 2017, Trump signed a whopping $110-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia during his maiden foreign visit. Two years later, the U.S. State Department approved weapons sales to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Riyadh’s dedicated regional allies, worth almost $6 billion.

Meanwhile, Biden has pledged to “reassess” the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia over the kingdom’s assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and its war in Yemen.

“Two years ago, Saudi operatives, reportedly acting at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, murdered and dismembered Saudi dissident, journalist, and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi,” he said on the second anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

“Under a Biden-Harris administration, we will reassess our relationship with the Kingdom, end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and make sure America does not check its values at the door to sell arms or buy oil,” Biden added. 

In his Monday presser, Khatibzadeh was asked to comment on the possibility of a war between Iran and Israel.

“Israeli officials are very much warlike, but want to do this [wage wars] at the expense of American troops’ blood,” he said.

Earlier, Tzachi Hanegbi, the Israeli regime’s minister for management of its illegal settlements, said that the incoming American president’s potential return to the JCPOA “will lead to a confrontation between Israel and Iran."

If the occupying regime had the ability to engage in warfare again, it would do so near Lebanon and Syria, Khatibzadeh added.

MH/PA