TEHRAN— In continuation of the efforts to sabotage the ongoing talks in Vienna intended to remove the illegal sanctions on Iran, yet again the United States is blatantly interfering in Iran’s domestic affairs.

The negotiations in Vienna had been stalled for about two months, until Enrique Mora, the EU’s representative and the coordinator for the Vienna talks, visited Iran last week. 

After Mora returned to Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the deadlock in the talks have been reopened. 

However, in continuation of the United States’ efforts in running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, Washington has resorted to sabotaging the talks by angering Iran.

The Biden administration is very well-aware of the fact that Tehran does not appreciate any country messing with its internal affairs, but it has decided to behave differently.

Raisi’s administration has taken a bold risk and begun rolling out fresh economic reforms that have long been shunned by previous administrations for their possible painful fallouts. President Raisi is basically on the belief that Iran must be de-dollarized. 

The administration is all in for the new economic measures. And it has the support of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. “The measures the [Raisi] administration is taking today are important and that everyone should help including the [government] branches and the various apparatuses as well as the people so that the administration, God willing, achieve [positive] results,” the Leader said in a recent speech delivered in a meeting with workers.

Aside from the economic impacts of reforms, the administration’s decision to proceed with its economic measures could have implications at political and diplomatic levels.

Painful reforms are being implemented while talks over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are due to continue with barely any silver lining insight, as the U.S. misses the deadline to respond to Iran’s demands in writing.

Iran has time and again reiterated its readiness to abide by the agreement in Vienna, if and only if the White House honors its commitments to the original agreement struck in July 2015. However, the Biden administration is long overdue in responding to Iran’s legitimate demands in writing. 

On the sidelines of his weekly press briefing, Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, faced a question from the Tehran Times correspondent regarding the interference of the U.S. administration in Iran’s domestic affairs.

“Of course, this over-indulgence of the U.S. government and the tweet that you mentioned shows that what the government has done” and this economic reform plan to administer justice “in the economic field is something that they are concerned about,” he noted. 

What Khatibzadeh rightly pointed out is that the United States is seeking to make Iran’s economy conditional and dependent on the signing of the agreement in Vienna, a process which is on the verge of evaporation due to Robert Malley’s procrastination in responding to Iran’s requests. 

“The government's path to neutralize sanctions, to separate Iran's economy from the dollar, and to maximize immunity is a definite path,” Khatibzadeh added in response to the Tehran Times. 

“No matter how much the United States suffers, our people have caused the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign to fail.

The government, along with the Iranian nation, is obliged to carry out this reform plan to the fullest extent possible.

Instead of always interfering with embarrassment in other countries' affairs, it is better for the United States to respect the national sovereignty of nations, and just for once, try to learn to respect nations and governments,” he outlined. 

Misusing the painful economic reforms while Iran continues to be under immense pressure from the heavy sanctions could also signal that the differences currently obscuring the talks are here to stay. 

President Raisi has said time and again that he is not going to tie the economy to what comes out of the Vienna talks. He made it clear that his management of the national economy will by no means be impacted by the Vienna talks. And current reforms are a translation of that position on the ground.

However, as pointed out by the Iranian diplomat, the big bully of the world must once and for all learn to respect the national sovereignty of other countries.