Iran: ‘We have no intention of restoring relations with US’

Iran has no intention to restore relations with the United States, advisor of the Iranian Shura Council Chairman Hussein Shaykh Al-Islam said, noting that there are mediators seeking to normalise Iranian-Saudi relations, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Al-Islam said that the reason that Iran does not want to restore relations with the US is that there are “very big problems between the two countries.” He described these problems as “bigger than the nuclear issue.”

Relations between Washington and Tehran severed at the end of the 1970s after a number of university students stormed the American embassy in Tehran in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.

On 16 January, the EU and the US lifted economic sanctions placed on Iran due to its nuclear programme. This came as a result of a commitment by Tehran to the demands of the nuclear agreement reached on 14 July 2015.

Regarding relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Al-Islam said: “Saudi Arabia is our neighbour and it severed the ties, not us,” noting that there are “initiatives being done by a number of countries, including Pakistan and China to normalise our mutual relations.”