Iran denies holding talks with US

The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday denied that its diplomats are holding talks with the US on the existing issues between Tehran and Washington.

The ministry's reaction came after Iranian lawmaker Javad Karimi Qoddousi on Friday said that the country's diplomats were currently in talks with their US partners in Oman over the mutual issues.

"The claims concerning Iran's talks with the US in a neighbouring country are wrong and baseless," the ministry's website said in a statement.

"Iran's Foreign Ministry adheres to the guidelines by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to avoid interaction with the US and would never disobey this principle, it was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Tehran would not sit for talks with Washington over the existing issues as the conditions were not ripe.

"I'm not ruling out the prospect of talks (with Washington) provided the necessary conditions for talks, and that is reliability," Zarif said.

"Reliability is that when you sign something you are bound by it. Otherwise, everything will fall apart," he said, adding that "we are waiting for some sense of realism".

The Iranian Supreme Leader said that Tehran will not sit for negotiations with "cheating" Washington.

Following US President Donald Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear deal on May 8, Washington vowed to reimpose sanctions lifted under the accord against Tehran and inflict punishments on nations that had business links with Iran.

Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal was criticized across the world. Some of its major European allies have been working to prevent the 2015 deal from falling apart.

--IANS

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