Pezeshkian says govt did not transfer weapons to Russia since it took office; also denies sending missiles to Houthis
\n TEHRAN
\nIran could hold direct talks with the United States if Washington demonstrates \u201cin practice\u201d that it is not hostile to the Islamic Republic, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday.
\nPezeshkian was responding to a question at a news conference in Tehran on whether Tehran would be open to direct talks with the US to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.
\nFormer US president Donald Trump reneged on that deal in 2018, arguing it was too generous to Tehran, and restored harsh US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to gradually violate the agreement\u2019s nuclear limits.
\n\u201cWe are not hostile towards the US, they should end their hostility towards us by showing their goodwill in practice,\u201d said Pezeshkian, adding: \u201cWe are brothers with the Americans as well.\u201d
\nAfter taking office in January 2021, US President Joe Biden tried to negotiate a revival of the nuclear pact under which Iran had restricted its nuclear programme in return for relief from US, European Union and UN sanctions.
\nHowever, Tehran refused to directly negotiate with Washington and worked mainly through European or Arab intermediaries.
\nMoreover, President Pezeshkian said that his government had not transferred any weapons to Russia since it took office in August, after Western powers accused Tehran of delivering ballistic missiles to Moscow in September.
\nThe United States and its allies accused Iran last week of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, imposing fresh sanctions on Moscow and Tehran. Russia and Iran both denied the Western claims.
\nAsked whether Iran had transferred missiles to Russia, Pezeshkian told a televised news conference: \u201cIt is possible that a delivery took place in the past… but I can assure you that since I took office, there has not been any such delivery to Russia.\u201d
\nFurthermore, he said Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen\u2019s Houthis, a day after the Iran-backed group said a missile it fired at Israel was a hypersonic one.
\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a \u201cheavy price\u201d on the Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
\n\u201cIt takes a person a week to travel to Yemen (from Iran), how could this missile have gotten there? We don\u2019t have such missiles to provide to Yemen,\u201d Pezeshkian said.
\nHowever, last year Iran presented what it described as Tehran\u2019s first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile, with state media publishing pictures of the missile named \u201cFattah\u201d at a ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pezeshkian says govt did not transfer weapons to Russia since it took office; also denies sending missiles to Houthis TEHRAN Iran could hold direct talks with the United States if Washington demonstrates \u201cin practice\u201d that it is not hostile to the Islamic Republic, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday. Pezeshkian was responding to a question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-431692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n