Iran official calls for ‘lobbying anti-Trump movements’

TEHRAN — One of Iran’s top foreign policy officials has called for negotiations with “anti-Trump movements” in the US to dampen the impact of sanctions, local media reported Saturday.

“America is not Trump,” said Heshmatollah Falahat-Pisheh, a conservative lawmaker who heads parliament’s influential national security and foreign policy commission, according to reformist newspaper Arman.

“There is a new diplomatic atmosphere for de-escalation with America and it is fitting that Iran follows negotiation diplomacy and lobbying anti-Trump movements in America,” he added.

He said this would help alleviate pressure caused by Washington’s “extensive sanction-focused force”.

The US pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May and reimposed punishing sanctions on the country, hoping to pressure Tehran into what President Donald Trump calls a “better deal”.

The US is due to complete the reimposition of sanctions on November 5, targeting Iran’s oil sector and central bank.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed Trump’s offers to talk as “a dangerous game”.

But Mehdi Motaharnia, a Tehran-based political analyst, described Falahat-Pisheh’s proposal as “very meaningful” since it signifies a potential shift in conservatives’ stance on talking with the US.

“This comes from a conservative whose party members called (Foreign Minister Mohammad) Javad Zarif a traitor for negotiating with the US,” Motaharnia told reformist daily Hamdeli.

“But now we do not see such reactions when the head of national security and foreign policy commission proposes talks,” he added.