While Iran has agreed to curb its nuclear energy program if the economic sanctions are lifted, the country has repeatedly refused to discuss its missile program, which both the US and Europe have called for.
Iran has continually insisted that their ballistic missiles are necessary as a deterrent and that it is not related to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers which led to the lifting of sanctions against the country.
Iranian Armed Forces spokesman Masoud Jazayeri said: “The condition for negotiating Iran’s missiles is the destruction of the nuclear weapons and long-range missiles of the United States and Europe.”
Powers in Europe and Iran have started talks over Tehran’s role in the Middle East and will meet again this month in Italy, in an attempt to prove to President Trump that they are meeting his concerns over the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran confirmed that the Iranian foreign minister had met his former US counterpart John Kerry in Munich last month.
It has been reported that Mr Kerry, the former US Secretary of State, had urged Tehran not to abandon a 2015 nuclear deal, despite tensions with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
On Friday, it was reported that during a meeting, which is believed to have been attended by others involved in the nuclear deal, “Kerry quietly urged the Iranians not to abandon the deal or violate its terms – whatever the Trump Administration does”.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi, said that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif “has always met on the sidelines of such international summits with attending personalities and elites … in the framework of preserving Iranian interests”.
Mr Qasemi said Mr Zarif had met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference with “John Kerry and Ernest Moniz, foreign and energy ministers of the previous U.S. government, who have a critical attitude towards Trump Administration policies”.
The US and Europe have tried on numerous occasions to use the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is also known as “the nuclear deal,” as a springboard for forcing adjustments to Iran’s missile program.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi said that powers in the west must adhere to the 2015 deal before pressing Tehran to negotiate on other issues.
Mr Araghchi said last month: “Now they ask Iran to enter discussions on other issues. Our answer is clear: make the [deal] a successful experience and then we discuss other issues,”
The US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to pull the US out of the agreement, describing it as “a very, very bad deal”.
In January, President Trump said the US would withdraw from the deal unless its “terrible flaws” are fixed.
But Mr Araghchi stated: “The US is trying to pressure us into withdrawing from the nuclear deal, but we will not fall into their trap.
“If the US withdraws, no country would hold negotiations with them any longer.”