Iran’s foreign ministry says Zarif will not be going to the annual gathering in Davos because “they have disarranged a previous planned schedule and came up with different arrangements”.
Abbas Mousavi, the spokesman of the foreign ministry in his weekly briefing with reporters on Monday announced that “unfortunately” the foreign minister will not travel to Davos but did not provide any details of who made changes in his schedule and what those plans were.
Mousavi also told reporters about a string of foreign visits to the country, including a trip by the Emir of Qatar and the visit of Pakistan’s foreign minister last week. He did not reveal if these visits pursued any mediation efforts or were strictly bilateral. Pakistan has been trying to mediate between Tehran, Riyadh and the United States.
However, Mousavi said Iran still remains in the 2015 nuclear deal despite rolling back its commitments to the agreement, criticizing European powers for failing to salvage the agreement.
"Tehran still remains in the deal ... the European powers' claims about Iran violating the deal are unfounded," he told a televised weekly news conference. He added, Iran had not closed the "door to negotiations" in efforts to resolve the dispute over its nuclear agreement with world powers.
"Whether Iran will further decrease its nuclear commitments will depend on other parties and whether Iran's interests are secured under the deal," Mousavi said.
Iran in retaliation to U.S. “maximum pressure” has rolled back its commitments prompting the UK, France and Germany to trigger a dispute mechanism that could eventually bring back international sanctions against Iran.