Iranian Ambassador: 'No Dialogue' Without Sanctions, JCOPA

There will be no dialogue between the United States and Iran unless it respects the international nuclear agreement reached during former President Barack Obama's administration, and while President Donald Trump continues with his crippling economic sanctions, Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi said in an interview airing Friday. 

"First and foremost, the U.S. has to implement what it has agreed to," Ravanchi told CNN's John Berman in an interview for "New Day." "It has to respect the agreements that the United States, with the number of countries and Iran reached. The decision to withdraw from JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) was against international law. It was against the international community. So we cannot buy this that there is a sincerity in this claim they want to have dialogue with Iran."

In a letter to the United Nations, the United States says it is ready to engage "without preconditions in serious negotiations" with Iran, but Ravanchi said it's a "definitely no answer" that will happen. 

"So why are they putting the knife on the throat with these economic sanctions at the same time they are claiming to be ready for a dialogue," said Ravanchi. "These are mutually exclusive. Either you want to have a dialogue or either you want to apply sanctions...no dialogue as long as this animosity towards the Iranian people continues."

Meanwhile, Ravanchi said further military action against U.S. forces will depend on the United States. 

"We didn't start this episode," said Ravanchi. "It was started by assassinating a top general of the Iranian armed forces in the territory of Iraq. This is against international law. This is against the Iraqi sovereignty."

But, he added, the Iranian "responded proportionately" with its missile strikes in response to the killing of Gen.Qassem Soleimani, and "that phase was over. So if the U.S. is going to start again, definitely we will have to respond."

However, Ravanchi said he could not respond to outside elements in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or in outside organizations like Hezbollah. 

"We are not responsible for any action that others might take," said Ravanchi. "It is not our job to say this gentleman or that gentleman should do this or not do this."

He also rejected statements made by Vice President Mike Pence, who said Thursday intelligence shows the Iranian missile strike was meant to kill Americans troops. 

"We said before we took our military action, that we would choose the timing and the place, and we chose the place where the attack against Soleimani was initiated. We do not consider, you know, a high number of casualties as an instrumental element in our calculations...the target was chosen in order to show that we are capable of hitting the target where the plan to kill Soleimani was organized...we (were) not looking after killing Americans within this operation."

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