Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a group of top defense officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference that the information provided to the president has dissuaded Trump from accepting offers from other leaders to mediate between Washington and Tehran.
“President Trump has been convinced that we are about to collapse so he doesn’t want to talk to a collapsing regime,” Zarif said.
To support his argument, the Iranian minister cited Trump’s decision to pull out unilaterally in 2018 from Iran’s nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers.
Trump said the landmark 2015 accord didn’t address Iran’s ballistic missile program or regional activities and needed to be renegotiated.
Since then, the Trump administration’s re-imposition of U.S. sanctions in a campaign of so-called “maximum pressure” have taken a severe toll on the Iranian economy and sent Iran’s currency plunging.
“I believe President Trump, unfortunately, does not have good advisers,” Zarif said. “He’s been wanting for Iran to collapse since he withdrew from the nuclear deal.”
Zarif also said the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3 was a miscalculation by Washington that has galvanized support for Iran instead of increasing pressure on the regime.
The Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, promised Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
In recent months, Iran has steadily violated the limitations the deal placed on the amount of enriched uranium and heavy water it can stockpile, the number and type of centrifuges it can operate, and the purity of the uranium it enriches.
Zarif rejected Trump’s suggestion of negotiating a new deal, saying the one negotiated during the Obama administration was the only vehicle for talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
“There is no point in talking over something you already talked about. You don’t buy a horse twice,” he said.
“It’s not about opening talks with the United States. It’s about bringing the United States to the negotiating table that’s already there,” Zarif said.
