Iran on Monday pushed its call for peace talks to end the fighting in Yemen, and offered assurances that a nuclear deal would pave the way for greater cooperation with its neighbours.
“With courageous leadership and the audacity to make the right decisions, we can and should put this manufactured crisis to rest and move on to much more important work,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote, referring to global suspicions about his country’s nuclear programme.
His New York Times op-ed piece entitled “A message from Iran” came ahead of new political director talks in Vienna this week as global powers chase a full deal on Iran’s nuclear program by a June 30 deadline. “Iran has been clear: the purview of our constructive engagement extends far beyond nuclear negotiations,” Zarif wrote.
“Our rationale is that the nuclear issue has been a symptom, not a cause, of the mistrust and conflict,” he argued, adding it was time for “Iran and other stakeholders to begin to address the causes of tension in the wider Persian Gulf region.”