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No Plans for US-Iran Talks at Asian Meeting

by VOA News

   U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has no intention of meeting his
   Iranian counterpart at an international gathering this weekend in
   Singapore, even as President Donald Trump says he is willing to talk
   with Tehran about its nuclear weapons development program.

   The top U.S. diplomat and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
   are both attending Saturday's meeting of the 10-nation Association of
   Southeast Asian Nations. But a senior U.S. State Department official
   said Tuesday there are no plans for the two officials to meet.

   The official said that North Korea will also be represented at the
   Singapore meeting, and while chance encounters for Pompeo are possible,
   no bilateral meetings have been scheduled.

   Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 international agreement to
   restrain Iran's nuclear weapons development in exchange for relief from
   economic sanctions against Tehran, said Monday he would be willing to
   meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

   "I believe in meeting," Trump said at a White House news conference.
   "Speaking to other people, especially when you're talking about
   potentials of war and death and famine and lots of other things, you
   meet. There's nothing wrong in meeting."

   Trump noted his recent one-on-one discussions with North Korean leader
   Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin as examples of his
   direct diplomacy with leaders deemed hostile to U.S. interests.

   "So, I would certainly meet with Iran if they wanted to meet. I don't
   know that they're ready yet. They're having a hard time right now,"
   Trump added. "I'm ready to meet anytime they want to."

   Asked if he had any preconditions for such a meeting, Trump replied:
   "No preconditions. If they want to meet, I'll meet."

   Later, in an interview with the cable television network CNBC, Pompeo
   said Trump is prepared to sit down with the Iranians if they "make
   fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their
   malign behavior," and agree it is worthwhile to put in place a nuclear
   agreement "that actually prevents proliferation."

   Iran responded by saying the path to direct discussions with Washington
   would have to include the United States returning to the Joint
   Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear deal between Iran
   and China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany, the U.S. and the European
   Union was formally called.

   "Respecting the Iranian nation's rights, reducing hostilities and
   returning to the nuclear deal are steps that can be taken to pave the
   bumpy road of talks between Iran and America," Hamid Aboutalebi, an
   adviser to Rouhani, tweeted.

   Analysts do not expect a Trump-Rouhani meeting anytime soon, pointing
   out that Trump has, for some time, been seeking to meet Rouhani
   directly without success.

   "I don't think it will happen in the immediate future," said Jarrett
   Blanc, senior fellow of the Geoeconomics and Strategy Program at the
   Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

   Iran, with a more complicated domestic political structure than the
   totalitarian model of North Korea, has been cool to the idea of
   diplomacy with Washington, more so since Trump pulled the United States
   out of the multinational nuclear accord, which imposed restrictions on
   Iran's ability to build nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions
   relief.

   Other signatories are working with Iran to try to save the agreement
   while Washington begins reimposing sanctions on Tehran that are to
   start taking effect in August.

   "Iranian leadership has presented Trump as a bully and has presented
   the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal as a betrayal of trust. So,
   it's really hard for the Iranian leadership to now turn around and
   start negotiation from scratch," said Shahram Akbarzedeh, a research
   professor in Middle East and Central Asian Politics at Australia's
   Deakin University

   Trump, just eight days ago, issued a direct counterthreat to Tehran in
   an all-capital-letters tweet in which he sharply warned Rouhani to
   "never threaten the United States" or the Islamic Republic would suffer
   historical consequences.

   Just hours before that tweet, Rouhani had warned Trump's policies could
   lead to "the mother of all wars."

   "No Iranian leader is likely in the near future to meet with a
   president who has repeatedly threatened Iran, insulted its leadership
   and violated the nuclear deal," said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at
   the International Crisis Group.