“[Nuclear] Enrichment is one of the achievements and honors of the Iranian nation, and a heavy price has been paid for this enrichment, and the blood of our nuclear scientists is behind this achievement, and it is definitely not negotiable,” Abbas Araghchi told reporters before departing to Muscat, hours before the nuclear talks took place.
He added that he hopes the talks with Washington this time around will reach a “decisive point.”.
On Friday, special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is representing Washington as its key negotiator with the Iranians, called for the dismantling of Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again, and that is our red line. No enrichment, that means dismantlement, it means no weaponization, and it means that Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, those are the three enrichment facilities, have to be dismantled,” Witkoff told American right-wing outlet Breitbart News.
Araghchi, on the other hand, questioned the “seriousness” of the Washington delegation in holding the talks.
“Negotiations should be held behind the negotiating table, and raising them in the media is contrary to the nature of negotiations and questions the seriousness and determination of the other side,” the Iranian top diplomat said.
Talks between Araghchi and Witkoff about Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief began in April in Oman.
Earlier this month, a top aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Ali Larijani, said that nuclear negotiations with the United States should be abandoned if they do not safeguard Iran’s interests.
Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
But the deal began unraveling in 2018 when the US, under President Donald Trump’s first term, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and imposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, which in turn began rolling back on its nuclear commitments.
Tehran, however, has repeatedly asserted that atomic weapons go against the Islamic republic’s doctrine and has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
In late March, Trump warned that “there will be bombing” against Iranian interests if Tehran fails to reach an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.
“If they don’t make a deal [with the US] there will be bombing, and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,” he told NBC News.
In an indirect response to Trump’s threats, Khamenei warned of a strong response if Iran is attacked.
“They threaten to commit evil,” but “if evil is committed, the counterattack will definitely be mutually strong,” Khamenei said.