Mohammad Marandi on talks with US: Iran will not give up its sovereignty and rights

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]the United States is a deceitful and dishonest regime. They will say one thing today, they'll write it down and then tomorrow or hours later or minutes later they'll do something else. So the only thing that is important for us are the facts on the ground. If the facts on the ground change that means that makes that's significant. But a piece of paper is nothing to us. The belief in Iran is that Trump is beholden to Zionism. He's not working in the interests of the United States or the global economy.

[00:00:35]He's dragging down the global economy closer and closer toward ruin.

[00:00:41]>> So, we are recording this interview on April. There are 13s and the US and Iran failed to reach a deal after 21 hours of talks in Islamabad in Pakistan. And then Trump just said the US Navy would block any and all ships trying to enter or leave the street of Hormuz uh in a post on TR social starting Monday which is today. We are now joined by Professor Sed Morandi who also went to Islamabad with the Iranian delegation for the talks. So professor thank you so much for coming back to this show again. I have a question like I hope you can share with us the uh uh the opinions the observations the uh from the Iranian side because I think the video of JD Vance went viral social media uh JD Vance is the head of US delegation this time for the talks he told the media before he left left Islamabad he said Iran chose not to accept our terms at a talks which began on Saturday adding that the US need to see a fundamental commitment from Tahran not to develop nuclear weapons. And he also said we need to see an affirmative commitment that will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.

[00:02:01]>> We have been at it now for 21 hours and uh we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news. The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement. And I think that's bad news for Iran much more than it's bad news for the United States of America. So we go back to the United States having not come to an agreement.

[00:02:20]We've made very clear what our red lines are, what things we're willing to accommodate.

[00:02:25]>> So can you share with us your views why US terms are not acceptable to Iran?

[00:02:31]>> Well, thank you very much for inviting me. I think it's quite obvious that uh the United States thinks that this is the 19th century or uh the 18th century and they dictate terms to other nations and uh during the tariff war that Trump engaged with the entire world literally uh he unfortunately was able to dictate terms to many countries and that uh made him uh increasingly arrogant. Iran is not going to give up its sovereignty. It's not going to give up its rights as a sovereign and and independent country.

[00:03:11]And what Vance was demanding on behalf of the Israeli regime because the let's be very clear, the United States was not negotiating the the US delegation was not negotiating on behalf of the United States. It was negotiating on behalf of the Israeli regime. I think that these negotiations really showed that the US government is its priority is not the United States. It's the priority is Netanyahu and the Zionist lobby. It was clear from their demands. It was clear from their behavior. And um it was clear that when progress was made at the negotiating table that uh subsequent to phone calls and uh and uh and discussions that Vance would have with others in the United States that the pol that the negotiations would change route. So unlike the Iranian negotiators who had the full authority to uh to to negotiate and to make decisions, it was clear that from for the Iranians that Vance did not have that authority even though Kushner and Whit were there uh to make sure he didn't uh um stray from the path of uh uh demanded by the Zionist regime. But even but despite that he would be in contact and when he would get into contact then the that the the path of the negotiations would um suddenly alter.

[00:04:42]But u also Vance was not being honest when he said that um Iran uh uh failed to address the issue of the nuclear weapon of nuclear weapons. It's clear as day that he's just making this up to justify uh US aggression and war and death and destruction. The Iranians have been very clear and we know this from Joe Kent of all people who was a very highranking official appointed by Trump himself in his resignation letter. He said Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon.

[00:05:18]>> Israel was the driving factor in that.

[00:05:20]We took down Saddam who was the strong man against Israel. We then had to go in and take out Assad who was a strong man against Israel as well. And now this is the third phase. We're going now into Iran to take out that strong government for Israel.

[00:05:32]>> And this of course is something that US intelligence has been saying for many many years. And the International Atomic Energy Agency has uh been saying that since the beginning that there's never been evidence that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon and Tulsi Gabbard under oath told the uh uh told Congress and the Senate that uh the U that the US knows that Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon. The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Kamei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. The IC continues to monitor closely if thrron decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.

[00:06:21]he was being dishonest. But uh the Iranians, what they were demanding is that Iran give up its peaceful nuclear program. And that's just not possible because that's a sovereign right of the Iranian nation. And the revolution in Iran 47 years ago was about regaining sovereignty and independence.

[00:06:44]It was about dignity. It was about honor. And so there's no chance in the world that Iran is going to capitulate to demands by the United States, especially since the United States launched and the Zionist regime launched an evil war and they lost. They were defeated. They gained uh nothing and instead of uh uh growing stronger, they weakened their own position. And uh also at the negotiating table, Vance was demanding and the United States demanding that Iran share the straight of hormones with the United States, which is quite interesting and that uh the United States doesn't care about Kuwait or Bahrain or the Emirates or Gata or Saudi Arab for Iran without even mentioning their the the names of these countries or even Oman which shares the trade of hormones with Iran.

[00:07:44]But uh but Iran said no this is this is not the Gulf of Mexico. So why should we share anything with you? Who who are you to demand uh authority over the straight of hormones? Everything that um Vance was demanding was ere illogical, illegal and uh they did not have the u they did not have the decency to even mention this in in public. But of course, the very fact that he says Iran did not what it was that you said that they did not meet our demands.

[00:08:28]uh the United States is in you know no two negotiating countries uh when they're negotiating the issue is not of one side making the demands and the other side adhering to them obeying them at negotiations you're supposed to find solutions but uh when the war started uh a month and a half ago the United States said that uh we Iran has to capitulate it has to accept accept unconditional surrender. Well, that didn't work well. That didn't work out well. And uh after a few weeks, they had to re constantly revise their position and ultimately they gave a peace point 15point peace plan which was again uh unacceptable and Iran rejected it. And then ultimately when they accepted to discuss talks uh they wanted the ceasefire and when they they accepted the Iranian 10point plan as a framework for negotiations then Iran accepted the peace plan. So the United States is during war they were unable to uh get any sort of unconditional surrender. Uh how do they expect that after they've lost the war that Iran is going to uh surrender to them at the negotiating table? So, professor, I know you were at the talk with the US in Islamabad. So, can you share with us uh what was it like there um uh and what's your role in this uh talk with the US? Well, in general, the what I can say is that during the many hours of negotiations, even though it was only one day, uh the uh the two sides were making progress uh and uh yet near the end, the United States made a very sudden abrupt change in attitude. And of course then while it was expected that there would be full further negotiations they s they suddenly broke off ties and left. So it seems very clear to the Iranian side that uh the United States really does does not have the will to to make a deal and that the the Zionists lobby the Israeli regime they are influence over Vance and the US government is just too strong for it to be able to move in the right direction. So you know usually such issues are not resolved in a few hours. But the fact that uh Vance just suddenly left and made a statement uh and left that I think said a lot to the Iranian side that the United States is not really serious. A lot of people would say the same like can the US still be trusted if there's a peace talk because last time I mean let's remember this whole attack on Iran was mid negotiation like two countries were having negotiations then they launched the sudden attacks u and of course several Iranian senior officials government were murdered and and then so a lot of public are discussing can you still trust the United States on the peace deal. So, what do you think? Can we still trust the United States on this deal? And what does this mean? Since like both sides has announced there's no agreement reached, what does it mean? Does that mean we are going back to war?

[00:12:07]>> Well, you're absolutely correct. The Iranians do not trust the United States and they never did trust the United States even during the before the 12-day war we that we had last year.

[00:12:18]uh and we were negotiating with the Americans and they kept moving the gold pl the gold post during the negotiations. The Iranians didn't trust them. Some people thought that the United States was able to fool Iran uh through those negotiations because it was clear that they were conspiring. It was admitted afterwards that during the negotiations they were actually conspiring to attack Iran and they wanted to catch Iran offguard. That just shows how sinister Trump and his regime are. But uh Iran knew that an attack was coming. But the reason why it negotiated was so that the international community and Iranians would see that the problem is not Iran and that had a very huge effect. I think the damage done to the United States by being so deceitful and murderous at the same time uh is enormous. And then of course as you rightly pointed out before this war uh the United States did the same thing.

[00:13:13]They negotiated with Iran. The Omani foreign minister said that significant progress was made. Yet the United States attacked and that again shows that um there's no way there's no reason why anyone let I mean the Iranians aside no one else should trust the United States at anything uh because they're they're deceitful and uh they're you know they're sinister. So and and but at that time too the Iranians knew that they were going to attack but still again they negotiated both so that the international community would see the truth and also just in case the United States for whatever reason decided to shift its policy Iran would be willing to give an offramp uh to end the bloodshed without the United States getting any gaining anything significant uh that it doesn't deserve.

[00:14:03]But this time around uh it was a higher level negotiation. Uh the negotiations were carried out at a high higher level but still it made no difference to Iran. We did not trust the United States when we were going to the negotiations.

[00:14:22]Uh no one expected an an agreement on the Iranian side. They were prepared.

[00:14:26]They brought a big big delegation, people with expertise to discuss the issues that were relevant to the talks.

[00:14:34]Uh it was a high-ranking delegation and unlike the Americans, the Iranians uh the Iranian delegation did not communicate with Iran. They had the full authority to make the necessary decisions. But Vance being the prime minister alongside Kushner and Wickoff did not have the authority. And as I said, they are constantly contacting.

[00:14:57]What is important for Iran is seeing actual change. Bance doesn't his signature doesn't mean anything because the United States is a deceitful and dishonest regime. They will say one thing today, they'll write it down and then tomorrow or hours later or minutes later they'll do something else. So the only thing that is important for us are the facts on the ground. If the facts on the ground change that means that makes that's significant but a piece of paper is nothing to us and uh it's it's clear to when we were going there it was clear to people in the delegation uh that they those those who I spoke with that they were highly skeptical of a deal and because of the general behavior of the of the Trump regime and um The belief in Iran is that Trump is beholden to Zionism and the Zionist lobby. And of course, that is reaffirmed by Joe Kent's resignation letter. But uh now, why is that the case?

[00:16:05]Who knows? Is did he do some really horrible things to little girls? I don't know. But the fact is that he's not working in the interests of the United States or the global economy. He's dragging down the global economy closer and closer toward ruin simply because that's what the Zionist lobby and Israeli regime want.