Iran said on Monday it was ready for indirect talks with the US, after US President Donald Trump demanded talks on a new nuclear deal.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the path to indirect talks was open. However, he made it clear that Tehran would not engage in direct talks “until the other side changes its attitude towards the Islamic Republic.”
The top Iranian diplomat also said that Iran would not engage in direct talks amid US threats and Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy.
During his first term as president, Trump withdrew the US from a key deal on Iran’s nuclear program in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran. Under the 2015 deal, Iran was exempted from sanctions on condition that it limited its nuclear program.
Western countries, particularly the US, have long accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons. However, Tehran insists its enrichment activities are for peaceful purposes only. On March 7, Trump said he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for nuclear talks and threatening military action if Tehran did not agree.
Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, delivered the letter to Tehran on March 12, according to Iran’s Fars news agency. Later on Friday, Khamenei said that US threats “will get them nowhere” and warned that they would retaliate if any harmful steps were taken against Iran.
Araghchi said on Thursday that Trump’s letter was “mostly a threat,” but that it could also create some opportunities and that Tehran would respond soon. In addition, US Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff said in an interview published on Friday that Trump’s goal is to avoid military conflict and build trust with Iran. He stressed that the letter was not intended as a threat.
Tehran and Washington have had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed Shah. Since then, the Swiss embassy in Tehran has served as a conduit for messages between the two countries. The Persian Gulf state of Oman previously mediated indirect talks on Iran’s nuclear issue through the so-called “Muscat process,” which Araghchi said in October had been “suspended for the moment.”
Source: AFP