Iran’s president said he needs guarantees that the U.S. won’t walk away again from a nuclear deal as a condition for his country to enter into one.
President Ebrahim Raisi, speaking through a translator in a “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday, said Iran is willing to enter what he called a “good deal and fair deal” but harbors doubts after former U.S. President Donald Trump exited the last pact.
“There needs to be guarantees. If there were a guarantee, then the Americans could not withdraw from the deal,” Raisi told the CBS News show. “The Americans broke their promises. They did it unilaterally. They said that, ‘I am out of the deal.’ Now making promises is becoming meaningless.”
Negotiators have worked painstakingly toward a new pact but remain at loggerheads. The U.S. recently rejected Iran’s comments on a proposed framework as “not constructive,” dousing hopes that a breakthrough was imminent.
The U.S., along with the U.K., Germany and France, have pursued a deal to head off the possibility that Iran develops a nuclear weapon.
Raisi expressed displeasure that Biden has kept in place sanctions imposed by Trump after he left the deal and said he sees little difference between the two administrations.
“This is a tyranny against the people of Iran,” he said. “It is important to us to have the sanctions lifted. They claim that they are different from the Trump administration They have said it in their messages to us. But we haven’t witnessed any changes in reality.”
Raisi reiterated Iran’s longstanding denial of any interest in developing nuclear weapons, saying its enrichment programs are aimed at advances in fields like medicine, agriculture and oil and gas. He didn’t elaborate.
He said he doesn’t want to, nor does he expect to, meet Biden at this week’s United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
“I don’t think that such a meeting would happen,” Raisi said. “I don’t believe having a meeting or a talk with him will be beneficial.”
Biden’s full schedule hasn’t been announced. He’s due to meet the U.K.’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, on Wednesday.
