Exclusive: Iranian FM on SCO, Israel ceasefire and nuclear issues

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi spoke exclusively to CGTN following a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tianjin this week. He discussed Iran’s expectations for the upcoming SCO Summit, the "fragile" ceasefire with Israel, and the prospect of Iran restarting nuclear talks with the United States.

Araghchi said that Iran attaches great importance to the SCO and values the intergovernmental organization's effort to "find the proper place of Global South countries in international community."

"We all have a real intention to go to these paths, address security issues, economic issues, even cultural issues of the member states in a different way than the Western countries usually address," the foreign minister said.

He praised the role of the SCO and members states in condemning the attacks on Iran by Israel and the United States last month. 

"We expect full support, political support, by the SCO Summit for the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said.

Asked what is essential to achieving a real and sustainable ceasefire in the conflict with Israel, Araghchi said that Iran is not engaged in a conflict with the country.

"It is an act of aggression by Israel against Iran, unprovoked aggression, against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We had no way but to exercise our right of self-defense," he said.

"The ceasefire is fragile. The reason is obvious. I think there is no ceasefire made by the Israeli regime," he added.

"We are very careful. We are fully prepared if the ceasefire is broken, but this is not our wish. That was not our wish from the beginning," the foreign minister noted.

Araghchi said that Iran would continue to work "in a new way" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after officially suspending cooperation following the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.

"We believe the agency played a negative role in this question when it prepared the so-called comprehensive report on Iran’s nuclear program with a sense to convince members of the board of governors of the agency that something wrong is going on, which was false," Araghchi said in reference to the June IAEA report that declared Iran had breached its nuclear non-proliferation obligations. 

He said that due to pressure by Western countries on the board and beyond, the IAEA released the report which became a pretext for Israel and the U.S. to attack Iran.

Araghchi said Iran will remain committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its safeguard agreement, and cooperation with the IAEA would be considered "on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration all security and safety matters." 

Araghchi said that Iran is not yet convinced that there is real determination by the U.S. to restart nuclear talks towards a win-win solution.

He said the current stalemate is the result of the unilateral U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018. 

"Our nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and we are 100 percent confident on that, and we have no problem to share this confidence with anybody else. And that can happen only through negotiations," he noted.

Araghchi signaled the possibility of Iran returning to a negotiated deal, saying that it would require "real serious determination" by the U.S. to put aside military options, and search for a negotiated solution. 

"We are prepared for that only when they put aside their military ambitions and compensate what they have done to us, then we can re-engage that negotiation," concluded the Iranian foreign minister.