Iran polarized on dialogue with US

Islam Mohamed

An invitation by US President Donald Trump for Iran to negotiate with him over ending US sanctions on it has drawn mixed reactions from the Iranian regime.

Chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iranian Parliament Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh called for conducting dialogue with the US.

Falahatpisheh wrote on Twitter that this dialogue can be hosted in either Iraq or Qatar.

However, Spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Keivan Khosravi, said Falahatpisheh’s statements only express his personal point of view.

The Supreme National Security Council, he said, is the only state agency that has the right to opine on issues related to strategic foreign relations.

Nonetheless, this had angered Falahatpisheh who returned to twitter to say that the council did not have the right to prevent people from expressing their views.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said earlier that his country would not negotiate with the US.

However, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said more than once before that his country would not mind going into dialogue with Washington.

Media reports said, meanwhile, that Trump is angry at his advisors, expressing fears that they might pressure him to wage war on Iran.

Trump criticized these reports. He denied the presence of differences with his advisors on Iran. The US president also said he backed his National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Tension is building up in the Middle East region after the US intensified its Iran sanctions and sent additional reinforcements to the Gulf. The US also ordered its nonessential diplomatic employees in Iraq to leave the Arab state.