Iran says it’s open to indirect nuclear talks with the US
Iran said on Monday that it was open to indirect talks with the United States after President Donald Trump sent a letter to the country's leadership offering negotiations for a new nuclear deal, while also reinstating a sanctions campaign and threatening military action if diplomacy fails.
“The way is open for indirect negotiations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, dismissing the prospect of direct talks “until there is a change in the other side’s approach toward the Islamic republic,” News.Az reports citing The Times of Israel.
The top Iranian diplomat said Tehran would not engage in direct talks with Washington under threats and so long as Trump maintains his “maximum pressure” policy of economic sanctions.
Under that policy in his first term as president, Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark agreement on Iran’s nuclear program in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran.
The deal, sealed in 2015 between Tehran and world powers, required Iran to limit its nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief.
Iran, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking a nuclear weapon, but it has ramped up its enrichment of uranium up to 60 percent purity, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so, and has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities.
On March 7, Trump said he had written to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to call for nuclear negotiations and warn of possible military action if Tehran refused.
The letter was delivered to Tehran on March 12 by UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash.
Similar news
