Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. (Photo: IRNA news agency)
Tehran, December 9 (RHC)-- Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran will not engage in talks with the Western countries on the region due to their interventionist approach, but always stands ready for dialog with its neighbors.
In an Arabic-language post on his Twitter account on Tuesday, Zarif said it seems that some of Iran’s neighboring states have asked the West that they also be part of the negotiations process with Tehran. “We will not negotiate with the West over the region. The main problem is their intervention,” he noted.
“At the same time, we are always ready for talks with our neighbors. The proposals, such as the 1986 regional security, the 2016 regional dialogue forum and the 2019 Hormuz Peace Initiative (HOPE), show this.”
Here is the Iranian Foreign Minister's tweet in Arabic:
يبدو أن بعض الجيران يطالب الغرب أن يكونوا جُزء من عملية التفاوض مع إيران!
نحن لا نتفاوض مع الغربيين حول المنطقة.
تدخلاتهم هي أساس المشاكل.
نحن على استعداد دائم للحوار مع جيراننا و ترجمناه في طرح مشاریع أمن المنطقة 1986 ومجمع الحوار الإقليمي 2016 ومبادرة هرمز للسلام 2019
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 8, 2020
The tweet came days after Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the Persian Gulf countries must be “consulted” before the United States revives a nuclear deal with Iran. “Primarily what we expect is that we are fully consulted, that we and our other regional friends are fully consulted in what goes on vis-à-vis the negotiations with Iran,” he told AFP on the sidelines of a security conference in Bahrain’s Manama on Saturday.
