TEHRAN — Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Iran is neither terrified of a second term of the Trump administration nor is it excited about a Biden administration.

“We decide and act based on our interests,” Araghchi said on Wednesday, IRNA reported.

He pointed to the claims of voter fraud in the U.S. presidential election, describing the November 3 poll as a “spectacle” through which the fake grandeur of the United States’ democracy was broken in the world.

In similar remarks last week, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed the U.S. election as a “spectacle” in which the incumbent president has said the poll was the most fraudulent election in U.S. history.

“What a spectacle!” Ayatollah Khamenei’s office tweeted last week. “One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office.”

“His rival says Trump intends to rig the election! This is how #USElections & US democracy are,” it added.

On Biden’s possible policy with regard to the United States’ return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, Araghchi said despite the difficult path forward “the way to return to the JCPOA is not closed.”

“Iran did not leave the negotiating table … It was the U.S. which unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA.”

The JCPOA was reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015 between Iran and six world powers, including the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, and also the European Union. 

Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA was deplored by all other parties to the deal. He subsequently imposed harsh economic sanctions on Tehran which he called the “maximum pressure” policy.

Referring to the maximum pressure campaign, Araghchi said the whole world has accepted that the policy has failed and has not achieved any of its goals.

So far, the Iranian nation has resisted these pressures well and they will continue to do so in the future, added Araghchi who was a lead nuclear negotiator.

Still, Araqchi leads the Iranian team in the Joint Commission of the JCPOA which holds regular meetings.

In similar remarks on Monday, Vice President Es’hagh Jahangiri said the era of Trump’s maximum pressure policy has ended with Iran’s resistance.

Jahangiri said despite the maximum pressure policy exerted by the Trump administration, the Iranian people and government are still proud.

He said the changing of the U.S. president does not mean a change in the key policies of that country toward the Iranian nation.

MH/PA