"We are negotiating with a side which has a long record of distrustfulness and has acted against Iran before and after the Islamic Revolution, and in such an atmosphere the negotiations are being held with utmost watchfulness and based on the complications of the political arena and with respect to possibilities," Jaber Ansari told reporters in Tehran on Monday.
"The US administration's undertakings under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is our yardstick and the criteria for the Islamic Republic's interaction is performance and actions (of the US) in addition to words, and we hope that (proper) performance would make it possible for the present path (of fulfilling the nuclear deal) to continue," he added.
"Otherwise, the Islamic Republic will pursue a path which will meet the Iranian nation's interests based on the policies which will be adopted," Jaber Ansari said.
His remarks came after the US senate passed a bill related to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) which allows citizens of 38 countries namely European states, Australia, Japan and South Korea to travel to the United States without having to obtain a visa but excludes from this program all dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan, and anyone else who has traveled to those countries in the past five years.
In recent days and before the congress bill turned into law, the Iranian officials seriously frowned at the US congress proposal to make changes in the US Visa Waiver Program, and called it against the nuclear agreement.
Facing the opposition, US Secretary of State John Kerry sent a letter to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on changes in the US Visa Waiver Program to promise Washington's efforts to nullify the Israeli-sponsored senate approval.
"After 10 days of hard and intensive talks between the Iranian foreign minister and nuclear team with the US and European sides in New York, Vienna, Brussels and Tehran on the approval of the US congress's new visa program which was approved as a part of the budget bill as a result of the Zionist lobby's attempts and had almost disempowered the US president of veto right, US Secretary of State Mr. John Kerry in a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Mr. Mohammad Javad Zarif explicitly assured him that using all instruments under its authority, the US administration will not allow the law to create any obstacle to Iran's economic interests," Jaber Ansari said on Sunday.
According to Jaber Ansari, Kerry has underlined in his letter that the US is fully committed to the termination of the sanctions based on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and its undertakings based on the agreements in the JCPOA.
Kerry has also stressed that the US administration will implement changes in the visa waiver program in a way that they won't trouble other countries' trade and economic cooperation with Iran, adding that the administration has numerous instruments which can stop implementation of the law within the domain of the president's authorities, he said.
Noting that the intensive negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) still continue and have made desirable progress in recent days to settle the last technical and legal points related to the implementation of the JCPOA, Jaber Ansari expressed the hope that Kerry's letter would facilitate implementation of the JCPOA in January according to the specified timetable.
By Fars News Agency
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