- Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since 1980.
- FM expresses Tehran's unwavering support for the axis of resistance.
- Iran's foreign policy will give priority to “neighboring countries”: Araqchi.
TEHRAN: Iran's new government will seek to “manage tensions” with its arch-enemy the United States to help reduce pressure and neutralize crippling sanctions, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said.
“What we have to do is manage the tensions and hostilities” between Tehran and Washington, he said in an interview on state television on Friday evening.
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, a year after the Islamic revolution that toppled Western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza.
A landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
But the deal quickly collapsed and tensions flared again after the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
“In foreign policy, we have a duty to reduce as much as possible the cost of this hostility and reduce its pressure on the nation,” said Araqchi, who was one of the key negotiators of the 2015 agreement.
He added that Iran's foreign policy will prioritize “neighboring countries” as well as African countries, along with China and Russia, among others.
Araqchi criticised European countries for having “adopted hostile policies” towards Iran in recent years.
He said they will only “become a priority” when they “abandon their misguided and hostile policies.”
During the interview, the foreign minister expressed Tehran's unwavering support “under any circumstances” for the so-called axis of resistance, a network of armed groups aligned with Iran across the Middle East and opposed to Israel.
Araqchi, a career diplomat, became Iran's new foreign minister after parliament voted on Wednesday in favor of the new cabinet presented by reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Pezeshkian had advocated a more open Iran, but some in Iran's reformist camp have criticized him for not including enough women in his new cabinet.
On Tuesday, he named Shina Ansari as his vice president for environment, the third woman to hold the post since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
