TEHRAN – Presidential chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi has rejected the possibility of a meeting between Iranian and American leaders, saying meeting for the sake of a meeting will not solve any problems.

“We’ve always said that meeting for the sake of a meeting will not solve any problems as long as there’s no trust,” Vaezi told reporters after a cabinet session on Wednesday. 

“Speaking of a meeting is not right,” he added, according to IRNA.

He said the U.S. must first come back to P5+1 negotiating table and respect its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and allow Iranians to benefit from the deal.

Trump pulled out of the JCPOA in May 2018, saying it didn’t do enough to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Tehran has on numerous occasions stated that it is not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Following the U.S. withdrawal, Iran remained in compliance with the JCPOA for a time, but recently reduced its commitments to the pact under two steps, according to which it started enriching uranium at higher levels than allowed in the deal. It has also threatened to take a third step, further reducing its commitments to the JCPOA.

Elaborating on the details of the third step, Vaezi said if Tehran sees no progress it will definitely implement the third step.

Amid escalating tensions between Iran and the U.S., France’s President Emanuel Macron recently stepped up diplomatic contacts with Tehran in a bid to ease the tensions.

In remarks on Sunday after a G7 summit, Macron said G7 leaders had agreed to a joint action on Iran with the aim of defusing tensions and opening a new negotiation with Tehran.

“We agreed on what we wanted to say jointly on Iran,” Reuters quoted Macron as saying. “There is a message from the G7 on our objectives and the fact that we share them is important, which avoids divisions that in the end weaken everybody.”

On Macron’s initiative, Vaezi said that in the past couple of weeks Tehran and Paris have been making efforts to protect Iran’s rights under the JCPOA and nullify Washington’s cruel sanctions.

MH/