Hard! Iran's New President Refuses To Negotiate Missiles, Refuses To Meet President Biden

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. (Wikimedia Commons/Mohammed Ali Marizad/Tasnim News Agency)

AKARTA - Iran's President-elect Ebrahim Raisi said his government's foreign policy priority was enhancing regional cooperation in the Arab Gulf region while calling on Saudi Arabia to stop intervening in Yemen.

Raisi, who will take office officially in August, said his government's foreign policy was not only about the 2015 nuclear deal.

"Iran wants to interact with the world. My government's priority is to improve relations with our neighbors in the region," he said at his first press conference in Tehran on Monday.

At the same time, Ebrahim Raisi also urged Saudi Arabia and its allies to stop interfering in Yemen, which has led to a stalemate in the conflict in the region for several years.

Raisi further said the United States (US) had violated the agreement and the European Union had failed to fulfill its commitments.

"I urge the US to return to its commitments to the deal. All sanctions imposed on Iran must be lifted and verified by Tehran," he said.

Asked if she would meet with US President Joe Biden if the sanctions were lifted, Raisi simply replied "No."

Negotiations have been ongoing in Vienna since April to find out how Iran and the US can return to the 2015 Nuclear Deal, which Washington abandoned in 2018 under President Donald Trump, followed by sanctions against Iran.

The former Iranian Supreme Court Justice also stressed that Iran's ballistic missile program is non-negotiable, despite demands by Western and Gulf Arab states that it be included in ongoing talks to revive the nuclear deal.

"Regional and missile issues are non-negotiable. They (US) did not abide by the previous agreement, how do they want to enter into new discussions?" he insisted.

Raisi added that as a legal expert, he has always defended human rights by citing US sanctions against him for alleged human rights violations that had been imposed on him for doing his job as a judge.