TEHRAN — A member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian Parliament believes that the negotiations to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been disarrayed from Iran’s foreign policy priorities for a year. 

In an interview with the Mehr news agency published on Sunday, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini responded to the recent comments of Robert Malley, the United States’ Special Envoy for Iran and Washington’s top negotiator in JCPOA revival talks. 

Malley has stated that the JCPOA is not Washington’s priority anymore.

Speaking to CNN's Becky Anderson, Malley said last Monday that the U.S administration believes that Washington feels the need to stop Tehran from acquiring what he called “a nuclear weapon”. 

“Diplomacy is the way to do that,” Malley said. “We will see whether this is a government that is interested in reaching that a deal, but at this point, the focus is on what's happening around because the talks are stalled.”

“The reason the talks are at a standstill and an impasse and why they're not so far moving at all, and why they're not the focus, is because Iran has taken a position in those talks for the past two months, which is simply inconsistent with a return to the deal. They're making demands that have nothing to do with the JCPOA. And as long as that's the case, the talks will be stopped,” Washington’s top negotiator stated. 

In response, Abbaszadeh Meshkini said that he has to remind them that Iran announced a year ago that the JCPOA is not the first priority of its foreign policy agenda.

“The country’s officials have clearly expressed this position many times in interviews that the JCPOA is not the first priority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is a point of view that has been positioned in the last year in the government. Fortunately, now the U.S. has also reached this point of view. Although America was a year late in adopting this position, we are happy that they have reached this conclusion,” the legislator added.

In response to a question about how he analyzes the change of position of the West after one year in the current situation, the former parliamentary committee spokesman asked, “How do you know that America has changed its position and how do you know that it is not sending other messages?”

Usually, America's declared and practical policies are different, the MP added, noting that what the authorities and their media say is one thing, but what they do in practice is a different approach.

In response to a question on whether the U.S. has requested direct negotiations with Iran again, Meshkini stated that the important issue is that Tehran has no problem with direct negotiations, as long as Washington is honest. 

“This (direct negotiations) even happened once at the level of foreign ministers when Mohammad Javad Zarif took a walk and talked with their foreign minister (John Kerry), but at the end of all these talks, they turned their backs to Iran,” the MP lamented.

According to Meshkini, Iran has the experience of responding to the request for direct negotiations with the U.S., but they did not adhere to their signatures and commitments and refused to abide by their words. 
“As a result, they should first repair this wall of mistrust which is built between the two countries, then request direct negotiations, and maybe we would consider this request then,” he added. 

“The United States’ goal in announcing that the JCPOA is not our priority is to send a message to the country and society and keep the streets in chaos. As soon as a small protest occurs in the streets of Iran, the Western media magnifies it and conveys a message of instability to other communities and nations, and this is more or less effective in terms of foreign investments in the country,” the MP clarified. 

However, the representative of the people of Meshkinshahr in the Majlis said the recent unrests are over, so the West should think of another ploy.

“Of course, we have also prepared ourselves for their next game and we know what they want. We are waiting to reveal their sinister plans again,” he concluded.