Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Qassem Soleimani rejected on Monday negotiations with the United States under enforced economic pressure, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
“By putting economic pressure on Iran, America wants to force us to enter talks with this country ... any negotiation under the circumstances is surrendering to America and it will never happen," he was quoted as saying by Fars.
President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 nuclear deal last May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
Earlier this month, the United States blacklisted the IRGC and demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions.
The best solution to end the crisis, continued Soleimani, lies in “resistance economy”, a term coined by supreme leader Ali Khamenei in 2011 to confront international sanctions.
His remarks come at a time when Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed willingness to negotiate over prisoners held by Iran and Iranians convicted of crimes in the United States and possibly in other western countries, said Radio Farda.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani rejected on Monday the idea of holding negotiations with the US administration.
He deemed such talks as a strategic error, adding that negotiations with “someone like Donald Trump are futile.”
