Tehran [Iran], March 14 (ANI): China, Russia and Iran have called for an end of all 'illegal and unilateral sanctions' and urged for abandoning 'threats of force' against Tehran, as per a joint statement, following talks between the three countries in Beijing on Friday.

The meeting between the three countries comes after Iran rejected the US proposal to restart nuclear negotiations.

In a joint statement released today, the three countries said diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on 'mutual respect' were the 'only effective and viable options' for addressing the issue of Iran's nuclear programme.

'The three countries emphasised the need to end all illegal unilateral sanctions. Relevant parties should address root causes, abandon sanctions, pressure tactics and threats of force,' the statement released by Chinese state media Global Times read.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi participated in the talks.

'The parties emphasized the importance of implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2231 [in support of the Iran nuclear deal], including adherence to the outlined timeline, and called on the parties concerned to refrain from actions that could escalate the situation and instead create conditions conducive to diplomatic efforts,' Ma Zhaoxu, who chaired the meeting, said at a news conference as per a report in TASS.

A day before the trilateral meeting, China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi and said, as per the Global Times, that China is willing to work with Iran to implement the important consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the United States' claim that it is ready to negotiate with Iran is aimed at deceiving world public opinion. Khamenei said Iran would not negotiate with the US because it would not help resolve any problems.

Earlier in a Fox News interview, US President Donald Trump said that he had personally written to Khamenei asking to talk.

On Thursday, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, in an interview with a local newspaper cited by state media IRNA, said that Tehran will demonstrate to Washington that its 'maximum pressure' policy is ineffective and that Tehran seeks equal conditions for holding talks.

After assuming office as US president for the second time, Trump signed an executive order resuming the maximum pressure policy, saying he would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and will use military force if Tehran fails to make a deal on its nuclear program with Washington.

During his first term as president in 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of an international deal in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions. Trump had then imposed new economic restrictions on Iran, to which Tehran responded a year later by violating the deal's nuclear curbs.

The deal officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was clinched in 2015 after years of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries namely the US, Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany.

On Wednesday, addressing students in Tehran, the Ayotollah responded to the US's claims that it would not allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons.

'If we had intended to build nuclear weapons, America would not have been able to stop us,' the Iranian leader said, emphasizing that it is because of Iran's own will to neither possess nor seek such weapons. (ANI)