TEHRAN – Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs on Tuesday said the Islamic Republic is seriously opposed to war and likened war to sanction that punish the public without discrimination.

Both in war and sanction innocent people are victimized, Ali Bagheri Kani said in a meeting with Peter Sztaray, the minister of state for security policy at Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
He said Iran which suffered greatly during the eight years of Saddam Hussein’s war against the Islamic Republic in the 1980s and have been subjected to four decades of sanctions condemns the war that “kills people indiscrimination” like sanctions that also “punishes humans indiscriminately”. 

He also pointed to the Hungarian foreign minister’s visit to Iran last year and the second meeting of the joint commission for Iran-Hungary economic cooperation, saying the political resolve of the officials in the two countries to strengthen mutual ties is a strong support for tradespersons to expand commercial and economic exchanges.

Bagheri Kani, who acts as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, said the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) could be immediately restored if the involved parties show seriousness.

Iran believes that a readiness by the sides for “lasting commitments” will quickly lead to a deal, he said, adding “honoring commitments” will guarantee that the deal will stay and lasts.

The United States, under former president Donald Trump, abandoned the JCPOA in May 2018 and reinstated unilateral sanctions that the deal had lifted.

The talks to salvage the JCPOA kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna in April last year, months after Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump, with the intention of examining Washington’s seriousness in rejoining the deal and lifting anti-Iran sanctions.

Despite notable progress, the talks have been stalemated.

Bagheri Kani arrived in Budapest on Tuesday on the first leg of his tour of several European countries.