Iran’s newly elected president has signalled that his government will take a tougher line with negotiations over the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers after his victory at the polls delivered hardliners full control over all arms of the state.
Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative cleric and judiciary chief, told reporters that his government would not “negotiate for the sake of negotiations” and ruled out any meeting with US President Joe Biden.
“Our foreign policy does not start with the JCPOA [the nuclear deal] and does not end with the JCPOA,” Raisi told reporters at his first press conference since his landslide victory on Friday. “We will support any negotiations that meet our national interests. But we will not tie the economic situation and people’s livelihoods to these talks . . . We will not let the talks be protracted.”