TEHRAN: Many Iranians were sceptical on Saturday about the possibility of the Islamic republic opening negotiations with the United States under Donald Trump, given the fractured history he has with Tehran.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk had met Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in a bid to defuse tensions between the two countries.
Iran on Saturday “categorically” denied that any such meeting had taken place.
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The United States and Iran were once close allies, but broke off diplomatic relations in 1980 shortly after the Islamic revolution that toppled the Washington-backed Pahlavi dynasty.
Ties have been frozen ever since. Views are exchanged indirectly via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents US interests in Iran, or through Oman, which acts as an intermediary.
After Trump’s election victory on November 5, Tehran sent a signal of more openness and called on him to adopt a new policy towards Iran.
During his first term between 2017 and 2021, Trump imposed a policy known as “maximum pressure” against Iran.
This included Washington tearing up a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme negotiated under his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Trump reintroduced heavy sanctions, which the current US administration of Joe Biden has maintained.
“It’s unlikely that he would want to talk to Iran,” private sector employee Saeid Sohrabi told AFP of the US president-elect.
“If their interests are served by making peace, they will do so. And if they’re served through war, they will go down that path,” the 53-year-old said in Tehran’s upscale Vanak district, known for its shopping malls.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, who took office in Iran in July, has said he sought to improve ties with the West and revive the 2015 nuclear deal to shore up the economy.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that indirect channels of communication with the United States were still active.
“People think that because Trump is a businessman he can make a deal with Iran,” said student Ms. Adasi, who did not want to give her first name.
“Our current government is a reformist one, so it’s more inclined and interested in negotiations,” said the 25-year-old.
But she too noted that the future American administration “looks more like a government of war than of peace, trade or negotiation”.
The collapse of the 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers has taken a toll on ordinary people in Iran, who are grappling with galloping inflation and a sharp depreciation of the rial against the US dollar.
Trump on Wednesday named Marco Rubio as his secretary of state to head up US diplomacy, and he is known to be a hawk regarding Iran and China.
“The Iranian nation is very kind and doesn’t want much,” said Fatemeh Salehi.
“The people of Iran just need peace and a normal economy,” added the 72-year-old housewife, speaking on a bustling roadside in the capital where clothes and handicrafts are sold.
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