Statement from Dozens of Political Activists Supporting 'Direct Negotiations' Between Iran and the U.S.

More than a hundred political and civil activists inside and outside Iran issued a statement calling for 'direct and unconditional negotiations' between Iran and the U.S., referencing the 'global' reception of the U.S. President's meeting with the North Korean leader and the 'dangerous situation in the region.' Signatories include Gholamhossein Karbaschi, Ahmad Montazeri, Abdolali Bazargan, Jalal Jalalizadeh, Jamileh Kadivar, Sedigheh Vosoughi, Hassan Farshchian, Reza Alijani, Hossein Karroubi, Eisa Saharkhiz, Hassan Amini, Mohammad Sadegh Javadi Hesari, Ali Kashtgar, Vida Farhoudi, Hamid Asafi, and Behrouz Khaligh. On the morning of Tuesday, June 12, in Singapore, for the first time, a U.S. President met with a North Korean leader. Following the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea announced in an official statement a 'agreement' on a 'step-by-step' process for denuclearization of North Korea. Meanwhile, a senior North Korean official delivered a confidential letter from Kim Jong-un to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. The statement from Iranian political and civil activists comes at a time when Donald Trump, who has always referred to the JCPOA as a 'bad deal,' ultimately withdrew from it last month and called for renewed negotiations with Iran. In response to this request, Islamic Republic officials have officially stated that they are not willing to negotiate again on this matter. On the other hand, the Islamic Republic's reaction to the meeting between the U.S. and North Korean leaders only reflects a lack of trust in Washington. Iran advised North Korea on Tuesday not to trust U.S. President Donald Trump and warned that he might cancel any agreement with Pyongyang within hours. According to the news website Zeyton, the authors of this statement noted that the welcome from 'a large part of the world's people' for the meeting between the U.S. President and the North Korean leader indicates that 'humanity is sympathetic to any movement that leads to the comfort and peace of people in any corner of the world.' In this statement, published on Saturday, June 16, it is emphasized that the 'unsafe and dangerous situation in the region' requires 'serious and responsible determination to change policies' and the status of 'tensions between Iran and the U.S.' The authors of this statement also pointed to the 'lost opportunity' of the Barack Obama administration and urged the Islamic Republic to 'regardless of the psychological warfare of the White House... with a brave national decision declare that it is ready to engage in unconditional negotiations with the U.S. to take a step towards resolving problems and disputes.' It is emphasized that these negotiations 'can be pursued powerfully and from a position of preserving national interests' and 'in the case of any excessive demands or lack of guarantees for the permanence of commitments, the way back is always open.' Previously, proposals for direct negotiations between Iran and the U.S. had been raised, but the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic opposed them. The foreign ministers of Iran and the U.S. directly negotiated for the first time since the severance of relations between the two countries during Hassan Rouhani's administration. However, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic has stated that the subject of these negotiations was only the nuclear agreement and that Iran would not negotiate with the U.S. on other issues. In 2007, during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration, Hossein Kazemi Qomi and Ryan Crocker, the ambassadors of Iran and the U.S. in Iraq, directly negotiated with each other. In the final years of Ahmadinejad's administration, the deputy foreign ministers of the two countries also negotiated secretly in Oman. Prior to that, secret negotiations between officials of the two countries had taken place, the most famous of which was the visit of Robert McFarlane, the U.S. National Security Advisor during Ronald Reagan's administration, to Iran, which later became known as 'Iran-gate.'