Putting Trust in West an Exercise in Futility

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said an important experience gained during the administration of outgoing President Hassan Rouhani was the futility of putting trust in the West which future authorities must learn from.  
“It turned out during this government that trust in the West doesn’t work; that they won’t help and will strike a blow whenever they can,” he said in a final meeting with Rouhani’s Cabinet on Wednesday, Leader.ir reported.  
He stressed that one must never leave domestic plans subject to western assistance because they will definitely fail.
“Anywhere you linked affairs to negotiations with the West and America, you were unsuccessful; anywhere you moved on without trust in the West and you gave up hope in them, you were successful and progressed,” he told the outgoing government officials.
Rouhani’s administration managed to strike a landmark deal with the six world powers in 2015 which saw the lifting of international sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. 
The United States, however, abandoned the accord in 2018 and reimposed even tougher sanctions on Tehran, while the European parties remained reluctant to protect Iran’s economic interests under the agreement, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
The nuclear deal went further out of shape when Iran, too, was compelled to scale down its commitments in response to the western pressure. 
With the arrival of a new president in the US, who had promised to rejoin the JCPOA, negotiations began in Vienna, Austria, to see if both sides can agree to resume compliance. 
The talks made great progress over six rounds, but faced a deadlock when it came to key areas of disagreement.   
Iran demanded a complete and verifiable removal of sanctions before it reverses its nuclear steps.  

Stubborn Stance 

“The Americans stood stubbornly firm on their hostile stance in these negotiations and did not take a single step forward,” the Leader said, noting that they did not lift sanctions despite their verbal pledges. 
They even set conditions, according to Ayatollah Khamenei, and demanded an additional phrase within the agreement which requires Iran to enter talks on other issues at a later stage. 
“By adding this clause, they want to provide an excuse for their future intervention in the original JCPOA and missile and regional issues, so if Iran does not agree to discuss those subjects, they accuse it of violating the agreement,” he said. 
Iran has repeatedly declared that it will not discuss the terms of the deal that has already been agreed upon, while maintaining that its defensive missile program and regional policies are not negotiable. 
Ayatollah Khamenei described the American’s attitude as “unfair and malicious”, saying they would not hesitate in breaching their commitments as they once did “completely without a cost”.
The US also refuses to guarantee that it will not violate the deal in the future, according to the Leader.   
“This is an important experience for the future government and statesmen, as well as all political activists,” he said. 
Parties involved in the Vienna negotiations have yet to announce when the next round of negotiations will resume. Tehran has said the talks have to wait until the newly elected president, Ebrahim Raeisi, is officially sworn in.
A US State Department spokesperson said Washington has made clear it is prepared to return to Vienna to resume negotiations. 
“We urge Iran to return to the negotiations soon so that we can seek to conclude this deal,” the spokesperson said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said on Thursday that the negotiating process could not go on indefinitely, contending that “the ball remains in Iran’s court.”
“At some point the gains achieved by the JCPOA cannot be fully recovered by a return to the JCPOA if Iran continues the activities that it’s undertaken with regard to its nuclear program,” he said.