Tehran, SAEDNEWS: Iran is closely following the developments in Ukraine, Khatibzadeh told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Monday. He voiced concern about the escalation of tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
Referring to Iran's good relations with both countries, Khatibzadeh said that the country invite the two sides to resolve their disputes peacefully.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that Washington has not made a decision on a prisoner swap with Tehran, and is waiting for the results of the Vienna talks.
He stressed that the issue has always been on Iran’s agenda.
“The issue is also going on in parallel with Vienna [talks] and we did not make anything conditional on the Vienna negotiations. It seems that the American side has not made its decision in this area and is waiting for the results of Vienna.”
The prisoner swap is “a humanitarian issue” that could be resolved “independently” and serves as “a good ground to show that Washington’s behavior has changed”, the spokesman added.
In another part of his press conference, Khatibzadeh condemned the US move to seize Afghanistan’s frozen assets as inhumane.
He said the US invasion of Afghanistan cost Afghans billions of dollars in losses and destroyed their infrastructure and it’s now plundering their remaining assets under a false pretext.
Khatibzadeh also criticized the Pentagon spokesman’s claim that the US is concerned about threats from Yemen’s Ansarullah movement.
He said the US is a part of the war on Yemen and supplies arms to the Saudi-led coalition, so it cannot pretend to be a well-wisher of the Yemeni people.
The United Nations Security Council had a US-initiated meeting on the situation around Ukraine on January 31. The US claimed that Russia was allegedly planning an aggression against Ukraine. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia denied all allegations.
Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polynaksy said on Sunday that the US is whipping up tensions around Ukraine, including within the United Nations Security Council, due to domestic political reasons,.
"Our colleague from the United States [US Permanent Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield] could raise the issue in such a provocative manner, advance such theses that look quite unusual even for the Security Council only because of the domestic political situation, and we told about that," he said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel, commenting on the US-initiated meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation around Ukraine on January 31.
According to Polyansky, the US diplomat "burnt all her bridges of escape" (Source: FARSNEWS).
US closes embassy in Ukraine, ‘destroys computer equipment’
