MP: Iran must seek detente in future talks

November 6, 2021 - 19:27

TEHRAN — "After the end of the eight-year term of the previous administration, today a revolutionary administration has come to power, which, unlike the previous administration which believed in the theory of de-escalation, has belief in the theory of détente," says Fereydoun Abbasi, an MP sitting on the Parliament Energy Committee.

The remarks by the top MP comes as Iran has announced that it will resume nuclear talks on November 29 in Vienna with the aim of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"The type of negotiations and how to reach agreements depends on the type of attitudes and thoughts of the ruling administration in Iran," Abbasi said in an interview with Tasnim on Saturday when asked about the strategy that Iran would adopt in the Vienna nuclear talks. 

“If we go back to 2013, when the negotiating team sacrificed all the achievements of our country in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiations and returned, I announced at the same time that the Westerners have given a bitten chocolate called JCPOA to Iran,” said Abbasi who was named as director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) during the second term of the Ahmadinejad administration.

He said the Rouhani administration followed a policy that interrupted Iran’s nuclear program.

The member of the Energy Committee emphasized that in the incoming negotiations the negotiating team should use “the indicators of the détente theory” which is derived from the theory of resistance stressed by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Imam Khomeini in previous years. 

"In future negotiations, the United States should not be seen as headman, and if they want to negotiate with Iran, they should stand by other members of the JCPOA."
Abbasi added: "The Americans must live up to their obligations under the JCPOA before returning to the deal and make up for the damage they have done to the Iranian people."

He stated that Iran is fulfilling its nuclear obligations within the framework of international treaties.

"If the Westerners fulfill their obligations in the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic of Iran will fully return to the deal and will act on what it has agreed without accepting a new obligation."

Noting that Iran should use soft and hard power in the coming negotiations, he said: "Soft power is the support of the people, and hard power is the country's defense progress and deterrent power, which has been created."