Iran's Zarif says room for talks with United States

Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Saturday there is room for talks with the United States but that the U.S. needed to “respect the outcome of the talks” they already had.

Zarif was referring to the JCPOA (2015 Iran nuclear deal) agreement with major powers that U.S. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from on May 8 and restore the full force of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Speaking at the annual Doha Forum, Zarif said that whilst Iran is facing economic pressure from U.S. sanctions it would not lead to policy change adding that Iran had survived sanctions from “United States for the last 40 years” and would “survive for the next 40 years.”
 
Zarif also said Saudi Arabia wanted to increase tension in the Middle East referring to the conflict in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Muslim Iran are locked in several proxy wars in the Middle East.

Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls the Yemen capital Sanaa and its main port Hodeidah has been battling against a Saudi-led Arab coalition seeking to restore a government ousted in 2014.

Hodeidah has been the focus of fighting this year, raising global fears that a battle could cut off supply lines and lead to mass starvation. Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition have massed on the city's outskirts.

Zarif also said that Russia, Turkey and Iran could announce a Syrian constitutional committee with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura before the end of this week.

As part of U.N.-mandated political reforms to end Syria's war, the country's constitution is supposed to be reformed and new elections held.

But Syria's government has rejected U.N. involvement in picking the members of the committee to make the changes, and the process has gone nowhere since January.