Iran expresses indifference toward outcome of US election

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, has stated that Iran is neither scared of a second term of the Trump administration nor is it excited about a Biden administration.

“We decide and act based on our interests,” he said.

He referred to the claims of voter fraud in the U.S. presidential election, describing the November 3 poll as a “spectacle” through which the fake grandeur of the United States’ democracy was revealed to the world.

In similar comments last week, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khamenei slammed the U.S. election as a “spectacle” where the incumbent president has said the poll was the most fraudulent election in the history of the US.

“What a spectacle!” Ayatollah Khamenei’s office said in a tweet last week. “One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office.”

“His rival says Trump intends to rig the election! This is how #USElections & US democracy are,” it further said.

On Biden’s possible policy regarding the United States’ return to historic the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, Araghchi said in spite of the difficult path ahead “the way to return to the JCPOA is not closed.”

“Iran did not leave the negotiating table … It was the U.S. which unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA.”

The JCPOA was reached in Vienna on 14 July 2015 between the Islamic Republic of Iran and six world powers, including the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, as well as the European Union.

Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA was denounced by all other parties to the deal. He then imposed extremely harsh economic sanctions on Tehran which he called the “maximum pressure” policy.

Referring to the maximum pressure campaign, Araghchi commented that the whole world has accepted that the policy has failed and has not achieved any of its goals.

Thus far, the Iranian people have resisted these pressures well and they will continue to do so in the future, noted Araghchi who was a lead nuclear negotiator.

Araqchi leads the Iranian team in the Joint Commission of the JCPOA, which holds meetings on a regular basis.

In rather similar comments on Monday, Vice President Es’hagh Jahangiri said the era of Trump’s maximum pressure policy has come to an end with Iran’s resistance.

Jahangiri said in spite of the maximum pressure policy exerted by the Trump administration, the Iranian people and government are still very proud.

He also stated that the changing of the US president does not mean a significant change in the policies of that country toward the people of Iran.

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