Baeidi-Nejad: It is Impossible for Iran to Comply with the Conditions Set by the U.S.

Hamid Baeidi-Nejad, Iran's ambassador to London, stated in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that complying with the conditions set by the United States for changing the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran is 'impossible.' The Iranian ambassador made this remark during an exclusive interview with Christiane Amanpour on November 13. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, outlined 12 conditions for reaching a new nuclear agreement with Iran in a speech at the Heritage Foundation on May 21, adding that 'if the Iranian regime does not change its behavior, the pressure of sanctions will increase.' During the interview, CNN's Amanpour played parts of these conditions as stated by Pompeo, which included: 'Iran must stop uranium enrichment. Iran must cease support for terrorist groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran must withdraw all its forces from Syria, and Iran must cease its threatening behavior towards its neighbors, many of whom are U.S. allies.' Amanpour then asked the Iranian ambassador if they had complied with any of these demands. Baeidi-Nejad replied, 'Of course not, because these are accusations, and some of them are completely baseless claims that the United States makes against Iran.' He continued by stating that the U.S. 'sets conditions that they themselves know are impossible for Iran to meet.' Baeidi-Nejad further explained that U.S. policy is not consistent, citing the uranium enrichment issue, noting that the U.S. initially demanded that Iran's enrichment level be zero, then accepted that Iran could conduct some enrichment, 'and now they say you must return to zero enrichment, which is impossible.' Western powers are concerned that uranium enrichment in Iran could one day be used to develop nuclear weapons, especially given Iranian officials' threats regarding the 'eradication of Israel.' Iran dismisses these accusations as baseless, and after 12 years of negotiations, a nuclear agreement was reached during the previous U.S. administration, but the Trump administration withdrew from this agreement and reinstated heavy sanctions against Iran. In the CNN interview, the Iranian ambassador responded to a question regarding the impact of these new sanctions, stating that 'the effects of these sanctions began to be felt five or six months ago,' adding that a significant aspect of these impacts is the psychological effect that sanctions have on Iran's economy and society. Iranian officials have made contradictory statements regarding the impact of sanctions in recent weeks. While President Hassan Rouhani stated on November 10 that sanctions 'have had no effect on the country's economic process,' two days later he acknowledged that people 'are facing economic and livelihood problems due to sanctions, and the problems of those with fixed incomes are compounded.' Rouhani's remarks on November 10 came at a time when his first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri, had said the week before, 'I cannot lie that sanctions have no effect; sanctions do have an effect, but we must minimize their impact.' Jahangiri also mentioned that 'the government should not disclose all worrying issues to the public but should keep some concerns within the system and implement appropriate measures for them.'