TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei has said that an Iranian delegation will shortly travel to Switzerland to follow up with the United States and ensure it fulfils its commitments under the recently signed interim agreement.
Speaking to state television, Baghaei said the purpose of the visit is to monitor the implementation of the commitments undertaken by Washington.
“This trip is, in fact, aimed at following up on the implementation of the other side’s commitments,” he said.
Referring to previous experiences, Baghaei stressed that Iran would remain vigilant during the implementation phase of the agreement.
“Given our experience with the other side’s failure to honour commitments, we must naturally be very firm and serious in demanding fulfilment of obligations during the implementation phase,” he stated.
Baghaei explained that the delegation did not travel to Switzerland on Friday as originally planned because the interim agreement had already been signed digitally by the presidents of the two countries.
“The interim agreement was signed digitally by the presidents of the two countries, so there was no longer any urgency for holding that meeting,” he said.
He added that the current visit is necessary because negotiations on a final agreement cannot begin until several provisions of the interim accord have been implemented.
According to Baghaei, those conditions have not yet been met.
“Negotiations towards a final agreement can only begin once several clauses of the agreement have been implemented and unfortunately, we are not seeing that situation at present,” he said.
He added that the Iranian delegation would use the talks to press for the implementation of US commitments and seek clarification regarding Washington’s plans for carrying them out.
“Therefore, during this trip and these talks, we will be pressing for implementation of the other side’s commitments and seeking clarity on how exactly the other side intends to carry out those commitments,” Baghaei said.