Iran says recent negotiations with US useful, sanctions not compatible with talks

DUBAI: Iran said on Tuesday a recent round of talks with the U.S. had been fruitful but the imposition by Washington of further sanctions was not compatible with the negotiations.

The US on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a shipping network it says has sent millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China, the State Department said, two days after Washington and Tehran held a fourth round of talks in Oman on Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The talks were useful” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told local media.

“In recent days they [the U.S.] issued sanctions on Iran, this is completely incompatible with the process of negotiations... This will definitely affect our positions”, Baghaei said on the sidelines of a book fair.

Fresh talks between Iranian and U.S. negotiators to resolve disputes over Tehran’s nuclear programme ended in Oman on Sunday with further negotiations planned, officials said, as Tehran publicly insisted on continuing its uranium enrichment.

Though Tehran and Washington both have said they prefer diplomacy to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, they remain deeply divided on several red lines that negotiators will have to circumvent to reach a new nuclear deal and avert future military action.

The comments by Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson coincided with a visit by Trump to the Middle East.

Speaking in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday, Trump said Iran was the “biggest and most destructive” force in the Middle East, adding that it had caused “unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and beyond”.

Trump, who has previously threatened military action against Iran if diplomacy fails, has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since returning to the White House in January.