Official: Tehran unwilling to negotiate with US

Shamkhani made the remarks in an interview with “Le Monde” French daily on Saturday.

Tehran avoids escalation of tension in the region and believes that it will be harmful for the region, he said.

In resolving developing problems in the Middle East, Tehran is not willingness to negotiate with the US and in fact there is no necessity to do such a thing, Shamkhani said.

“Is Iran terrified that the US army to play much active role in the Middle East region mainly after attacking Syria on April seven?”, asked the newspaper and he said one of the reasons for Trump's success in the US presidential campaign was that he sharply criticized the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq claiming that such military confrontation burden huge sum on the US administration.

The US allies would like to witness downing of the US in quagmire, he said, adding that it is about six years that the US and its allies are involved in Syrian conflicts.

Washington's direct involvement in such conflicts never change ongoing situation in the region, he said.

“I myself witnessed that during eight years of sacred defense with Iraq, they used chemical weapons against the Iranian forces and even civilians,” Shamkhani underlined.

European countries provided Iraq with such weapons and never recognized their responsibility to this end, he said.

'We believe that Damascus never carried out such chemical attack and Iran calls for formation of an independent fact finding committee, but we strongly condemn the US attack under any pretexts,' Shamkhani said, adding, 'The US cannot simultaneously play three different roles of plaintiff, judge and executor of the verdict.'

Syrian government handed over its chemical weapons in 2013 and got approval of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), he said.

Foreign intervention leaves no impact on the might of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the country’s majority back him and are determined to make their own fate and there is no room for his absence, he said.

'Iran believes that Syrian issue should be resolved through political negotiations and the country’s problem cannot be resolved through military means,' Shamkhani underlined.

US president understands everything with his business intuition and has no good understanding on international relations, he said.

'Words and deeds of the US president are at odds and Iran has no plan to negotiate with US and feels no necessity to do so,' he said.

“We know that the US conducts economic war against Iran but they are facing new situation as European are no willing to pursue US policies,” he said, adding, 'Iran under wise leadership of the Supreme Leader has designed a new model for resistance economy to cope with the problems.'

“We encourage them to support their companies to invest in Iran as there are huge natural and gas resources in the country meeting their demands,” he said.

1430**2050