Tehran has repeatedly rejected the idea of launching direct talks with the US, as, according to Iran, Washington should first resume complying with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iranian nuclear deal, and lift its sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.
"They [the US] want to bring Iran to the negotiating table, but the result of such negotiations has been already determined, and that is Iran’s surrender to the US," Baqeri said at a video conference on civil defense, as cited by the Tasnim news agency.
The senior military official added that by proposing to launch talks, Washington aimed at making Iran "cave in to the strategies and [policies] imposed by the US."
In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and the European Union. It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including lifting the arms embargo five years after the deal's adoption. In 2018, the United States abandoned its conciliatory stance on Iran, withdrawing from the JCPOA and implementing hard-line policies against Tehran.
Earlier this year, the US tried to campaign for the restoration of international sanctions on Iran, specifically, an extension to the arms embargo, but all of its draft resolutions ended up being rejected.
Earlier in October, Iran declared that the UN Security Council arms embargo against Tehran was no longer in effect and that its hands were untied in dictating the movement of armaments over its borders.
