TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian stresses that Iran will not have direct negotiations with the Americans in Vienna and that Tehran will try to lift as many sanctions as possible, according to a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament.

The announcement by Ebrahim Rezaei comes as the parliament held a closed-door session on Tuesday with Amir Abdollahian. 

“The foreign minister said in this session that the negotiations and talks have proceeded according to the new text,” Rezaei told the Mehr news agency.

He added that the chief diplomat stressed that the parliamentary ratification on lifting sanctions and protecting the rights of the Iranian people is the Islamic Republic’s red line in the negotiations.

The official name of the parliamentary act approved in December 2020 is “Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Interests of the Iranian People.” The ratification obliged the government to speed up nuclear activities, including installing new generation of centrifuges machines and upgrade the level of uranium enrichment to 20 percent.

The nuclear talks in Vienna started on Tuesday. The talks started after a one-week break in which the lead negotiators had returned to the capitals for consultations.

At the Tuesday meeting the foreign minister said Iran does not trust the U.S. sides and that everything must be done based on the original 2015 nuclear deal.

“We distrust the Americans and the other side must fulfill its obligations within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Rezaei quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying.

He added the foreign minister stressed that Iran’s emphasis is on verifying a lifting of sanctions and obtaining guarantees from the other side.

The parliamentarian continued, “The foreign minister emphasized that we are ignoring the deadlines of the Westerners and are following our own path.”

Rezaei said that several members of parliament also expressed their views at the meeting.

“It was emphasized that we should not trust the United States in any way, and in the negotiations, special attention should be paid to the Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Interests of the Iranian People,” he added.

The legislator said that Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the parliament’s speaker, also raised issues in the meeting and emphasized that Iran must simultaneously pursue the lifting and neutralization of sanctions. 

“Another emphasis of the speaker was that we no longer have negotiations with the Americans,” Rezaei concluded.