TEHRAN — Speaking at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said Tehran believes in dialogue and constructive interaction.

Rabiei also said that negotiations between Iran and the United States are underway on exchanging prisoners.
 
“Even after the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, we believed firmly in dialogue and constructive interaction that thwarted ill-wishers' plot and this led to our refusal to withdraw from the deal,” he noted. 

Rabiei noted that it was Iran that prevented the killing of the JCPOA by standing against the great lawbreaker (the U.S.), and by combining unparalleled resistance on the one hand and pursuing lively and dynamic diplomacy on the other.

Since April, the remaining parties to the JCPOA along with the U.S. have held six rounds of talks to revive the nuclear pact. The U.S. is participating in the talks indirectly as Iran has refused direct talks with the American side until the U.S. rejoins the deal and fulfills its obligations.

The government spokesman said the U.S. had no choice but to return to the negotiating table.

The government spokesman went to say that “some European countries while considering Iran's actions as violating the JCPOA obligations, have never done anything with regard to implementing commitments.”

Iran has been reducing its commitments to the JCPOA since May 2019, one year after former U.S. president Donald Trump quit the nuclear agreement and slapped the harshest sanctions within his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran. Iran decided to gradually remove limits on its nuclear program as the European parties to the deal failed to compensate Iran for the sanctions. 

Iran’s nuclear steps are based on paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which has “provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.”

Rabiei also said U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price’s remarks toward the JCPOA are unacceptable.

Price had said the U.S. is concerned about Iran's nuclear steps. 

Rabiei said the current situation is due to Washington’s illegal and unilateral actions and approaches.

"Iran has humanitarian intentions toward prisoner swap”

Reacting to remarks by the U.S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley with regard to negotiations on releasing American prisoners in Iran, he said that Iran has humanitarian intentions in mind.

“Thanks to its humanitarian intentions, Iran is ready to swap all political prisoners in return for the release of all Iranian prisoners held at the request of the United States. We even announced the readiness during the previous U.S. administration, but it was the U.S. administration that refused to sit at the negotiating table, insisting on taking the Iranians hostage, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had proposed swapping all Iranian and American prisoners, and Joe Biden’s administration has been considering this issue,” he elaborated. 

"Iran prevents illegal trespassing of immigrants”

Commenting on the Taliban presence near Iran’s eastern borders and Iran's security measures, he said since the beginning of new changes in Afghanistan various bodies related to the Iranian Ministry of Interior have been continuously monitoring the situation.

He confirmed that the Taliban have taken control of the Islam Qala and Abu Nasr Farahi customs near the border with Iran. However, the spokesman said, Milak customs is still active and trades between Iran and Afghanistan are underway.

He also said Iran's plan is to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan. 

“Necessary measures have been taken to reinforce the border, surveillance and security forces on the border with Afghanistan,” the spokesman noted. 

"MEK gathering an opportunity to identify hypocrites”

On the virtual meeting of the MKO, aka MEK, he said the gathering is an opportunity to identify hypocritical American politicians who do not pay the slightest attention to the principles and history of terrorism and human rights violations in other countries.

“We never expected those who in recent years supported sanctions, war, and terror against the Iranians, which they called the ‘maximum pressure’ policy, to separate themselves from Mojahedin-e- Khalq terrorists,” he added. 

"Iran’s nuclear activities are peaceful”

In response to a question regarding concerns expressed by Western countries and Russia over 20% uranium enrichment by Iran and its plan to build uranium silicide fuel pellet, he said all these measures are taken based on civilian uses of nuclear energy. He added Iran had notified the International Atomic Energy Agency of its decision to build fuel pellet.

“The fuel of research reactors and their power is constantly witnessing a qualitative change with the use of new technologies. The %20 uranium metal fuel, compared to the usual %20 fuel, improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the Tehran Research Reactor; in such a way that we can increase the quantity of radiopharmaceuticals, and in time the production process becomes faster. In addition, we can produce new industrial radioisotopes that cannot be produced in the current situation,” he elaborated.