TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran signaled an openness toward Donald Trump Saturday, calling on the president-elect to adopt new policies toward it after Washington accused Tehran of involvement in a plot to kill him. Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif urged Trump to reassess the policy of “maximum pressure” he employed against the Islamic republic during his first term. “Trump must show that he is not following the wrong policies of the past,” Zarif told reporters. His remarks came after the United States accused Iran of conspiring to assassinate Trump. The Foreign Ministry described the American accusations Saturday as “totally unfounded.” Tehran and Washington severed diplomatic relations shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979. 2015 nuclear power accord Zarif, a veteran diplomat who previously served as foreign minister, helped to seal the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and Western powers, including the United States. However, the deal was torpedoed in 2018 after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the deal under Trump, who later reimposed sanctions on Tehran. In response, Iran rolled back its obligations under the deal and has since enriched uranium up to 60%, just 30 percentage points lower than nuclear-grade uranium. Tehran has repeatedly denied Western accusations that it seeks to develop a nuclear weapon. Zarif said Saturday that it was Trump’s political approach toward Iran that led to the surge in enrichment levels. “He must have realized that the maximum pressure policy that he initiated caused Iran’s enrichment to reach 60% from 3.5% and increased its centrifuges,” he said. Provocations “As a man of calculation, he should do the math and see what the advantages and disadvantages of this policy have been and whether he wants to continue or change this harmful policy,” Zarif said. In December 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the following year moved the American embassy there. Trump also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed. During his first term, Trump also ordered the killing of revered Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps foreign operations arm, the Quds Force. Soleimani was killed in a drone strike while he was in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in January 2020. The Islamic Republic has not recognized its archnemesis Israel since the U.S.-backed shah was toppled in 1979. On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said he hoped the president-elect’s return to power would allow Washington to “revise the wrong approaches of the past,” although he avoided mentioning Trump by name. On Tuesday, election day in the United States, Trump told reporters he was “not looking to do damage to Iran.” “My terms are very easy. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I’d like them to be a very successful country,” he said after casting his ballot. Iran insists that it uses nuclear technology for safe and civilian purposes. Trump’s election victory came after Iran and Israel attacked each other directly, raising fears of a further regional spillover of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
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