Top commander: Iran never rules out talks

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Hassan Firouzabadi said Tehran has and will never oppose talks with the West, although the latter has embarked on a soft war invasion of the Islamic Republic through its sanctions. "As the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) has said we don’t rule out negotiations, but we see the sanctions as a non-military and soft invasion," Firouzabadi said in Tehran on Wednesday. Asked to comment on the new US sanctions against Iran approved by the Congress on the threshold of the inauguration of a new government in Tehran, he said, "The US is devil in nature and we don’t expect anything other than this from that (Washington's) government." Late last month, 131 US lawmakers called on the White House to opt for diplomatic channels on Iran following the victory of Hassan Rouhani in Iran’s June 14th presidential election. The request was made through a letter co-authored by Charlie Dent and David Price and signed by 131 lawmakers at the US House of Representatives. “We believe it would be a mistake not to test whether Dr. Rouhani’s election represents a real opportunity for progress toward a verifiable, enforceable agreement. … In order to test this proposition, it will be prudent for the United States to utilize all diplomatic tools to reinvigorate ongoing nuclear talks,” the letter read. But a few days later, the US House of Representatives passed a bill late to tighten sanctions on Iran’s oil sales. After the US House approved the new sanctions bill, Iran blasted Washington, and stressed that such boycotts undermine efforts to settle Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West. “The policy of imposing sanctions is a failed policy and under the present circumstances, it will only make resolving existing problems particularly in the nuclear issue, more difficult and complicated,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi said late in July. He described the move by American senators as a clear indication of the prevalence of the unilateralism theory as a symbol of neo-conservatism in the US. Two days after the US congressmen’s letter to Obama, their counterparts in Tehran said they would study the letter, but expressed surprise at Washington’s contradictory moves towards Iran. Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin announced that the Iranian parliament is due to study the US congressmen’s letter, expressing surprise at the US lawmakers' change of position after calling for tougher sanctions against Tehran. “Some time ago, the members of the US Congress Foreign Relations Committee urged Obama to question the presidential election in Iran and impose new sanctions against the country,” Boroujerdi said. “The US congressmen’s change of approach and writing a letter to Barack Obama to ask for negotiations with Iran in a short period of time (after calling for more sanctions against Tehran) indicates the US officials’ instability in decision-making,” he added. Therefore the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission will study the US congressmen’s letter to Obama, Boroujerdi said.