ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran will not engage in direct negotiations with the United States unless Washington recalibrates its policy towards Tehran, the Iranian foreign minister said on Sunday.
“Negotiations with the United States are no longer possible considering the current circumstances,” the semi-official Mehr news agency cited Abbas Araghchi as stating. “Certain things have to change,” he added.
Araghchi emphasized that Tehran’s opposition to talks with the US stems from “history and experience” rather than mere “stubbornness,” stressing that “certain things have to change” for the negotiations to kick off.
After returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump in early February restored his “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran, arguing that it is “too close” to a nuclear weapon. He also expressed openness to negotiate a new deal with Tehran, though Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei deemed negotiations “unwise.”
On March 7, Trump told Fox Business that he had sent a letter to Khamenei, signaling openness to nuclear negotiations while warning that military action against Iran would have devastating consequences. “If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them [Iran],” he stated.
In mid-March, Khamenei dismissed Trump’s letter as deceptive, arguing that the U.S. president’s excessive demands would only “tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure” on Tehran.
Speaking to local Iranian TV, Araghchi on Thursday described Trump’s letter as a mix of threats and opportunities. While confirming that Iran would respond in due time, he ruled out direct negotiations under the current pressure and sanctions. “Trump’s message is mostly threatening, but it also claims there are opportunities. We will examine the dimensions of both the threats and the opportunities,” Araghchi said in a televised interview aired by state media.
Tammy Bruce, US state department spokesperson told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda on Saturday that “the sanctions dynamic” against Tehran “has not changed, and there's no plans to change it at this point.”
Bruce linked the restoration of the maximum pressure campaign against Iran to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic programs, its “funding terrorist groups” in the region, and its “behavior” which “threatens US national interests.”
Earlier on Friday, the state department spokesperson told Rudaw that Trump “has made clear Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” and anticipated further sanctions on nations and entities “that are assisting that framework.” Bruce claimed that the Trump administration has been “very effective” in “stopping [Iran’s] malign behavior.”
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