Baqeri: US Pushing for Lengthy, Futile Talks with Iran

In an address to a meeting of police commanders on Saturday, Iran’s highest-ranking military commander denounced US President Joe Biden administration’s empty promises and deceptive policies that resemble an “iron fist in a velvet glove” Baqeri said while the previous US president left the White House humiliatingly and the American policy of maximum pressure on Iran ended in failure, the new US administration has displayed nothing but empty promises and deception. “Experience shows that Democratic US governments say beautiful words and work like an iron fist in a velvet glove, and that they constantly hatch plots to create insecurity in Iran,” the top general said, as quoted by Tasnim news agency. Despite the promises about a breakthrough in economic ties with Iran and the removal of sanctions, what the US administration has presented in the past couple of months have been mere words without any action, he added. “They (US) are trying hard to start lengthy and pointless talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran with new claims and demands, while the strategic policy of the Islamic Republic, as outlined and devised by the Supreme Leader, is only the full removal of the sanctions that they have imposed on Iran under any name,” Major General Baqeri stated. The senior commander emphasized that Iran will resume honoring its nuclear commitments –as it has always fulfilled its promises- only after a detailed and practical verification of the complete termination of the sanctions. His comments came after the JCPOA Joint Commission held a four-day round of talks in the Austrian city of Vienna, with representatives of Iran, Russia, China, France and the UK in attendance. The US has been absent from the Commission and its discussions since 2018, when former American president Donald Trump took Washington out of the JCPOA and returned the sanctions that the nuclear accord had lifted. Source: Iranian media