Rouhani Lays Out Conditions as U.S. Talks Seen Slipping Away

By John Micklethwait and Bill Faries

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said talks with the U.S. are still possible under two conditions, but the likelihood of direct negotiations at the United Nations this week appeared to be slipping away as key European leaders prepare to leave New York.

Rouhani, speaking Tuesday to New York editors on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said the U.S. must return to talks with Iran and the other five partners in the 2015 nuclear agreement that President Donald Trump quit last year. And, Rouhani said, the U.S. must end “illegal” sanctions Trump has ramped up on the Islamic Republic since abandoning the accord.

Those demands look out of reach for now. Getting the U.S. and European allies still in the nuclear deal together in one room becomes harder after Tuesday, when French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson are scheduled to return home from New York.

Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have repeatedly tried to broker an agreement between Washington and Tehran that would ease tensions in the Persian Gulf. But late on Monday, France joined with the U.K. and Germany in a statement blaming Iran for recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities and saying it’s time for Rouhani’s government to sit down for talks on an agreement that would go beyond the 2015 accord.

“The moment has come for Iran to accept negotiations on a long-term framework on its nuclear program as well as on regional security, including its ballistic missiles,” according to the three nations, which didn’t repeat their past criticism of Trump for quitting the 2015 deal.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump cited the attacks on Saudi Arabia as a sign of the Islamic Republic’s “menacing behavior” and called on Rouhani’s government to stop lashing out “at everyone else for the problems they alone have created.” The country, Trump said, has “blood lust.”

“Iran’s citizens deserve a government that cares about reducing poverty, ending corruption and increasing jobs, not stealing their money to fund and massacre abroad and at home,” Trump said.

Officials in Tehran have repeatedly said the government won’t consider new talks until the U.S. and Europe abide by their commitments to the 2015 deal, including ensuring that Iran gets economic benefits from curbing their nuclear program. The Islamic Republic also denies any involvement in the attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities.

Anti-Iran Group

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is scheduled to speak at an anti-Iran conference in New York. He’s expected to stick with a hard line against U.S. concessions until Iran changes its behavior. Iran considers the group Pompeo is speaking to—United Against Nuclear Iran—a terrorist organization.

With talks this week looking increasingly unlikely, Trump held out the promise of eventual negotiations, saying Tehran could learn from the example of American outreach to North Korea. After severely criticizing North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing in his 2017 UN speech, Trump has since met three times with Kim Jong Un in a bid to get the isolated country to give up its nuclear weapons program. Iran denied it wants to develop nuclear arms and the 2015 accord was designed to restrict and tightly monitor its atomic activities.

“The United States has never believed in permanent enemies,” Trump said. “We want partners, not adversaries. America knows that while anyone can make war, only the most courageous can choose peace.”

Photo: IRNA