Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has not ruled out talks with the US, but says that they can only take place if both countries are on “equal terms,” an Iranian state-run newspaper reported on Thursday.
Last week, US President Donald Trump said that he had sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing nuclear talks, but also warned that, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal.”
“If we enter negotiations while the other side is imposing maximum pressure, we will be negotiating from a weak position and will achieve nothing,” said Araghchi. “The other side must be convinced that the policy of pressure is ineffective; only then can we sit at the negotiating table on equal terms.”
Reuters has reported that Khamenei said on Wednesday that talks with the Trump administration would simply “tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure on Iran.”
In 2018, during Trump’s first presidency, the US withdrew from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Tehran reacted a year later by ignoring the deal’s terms to curb its nuclear development.
Khamenei, who has the final word in Iranian state matters, said last week that Tehran would not be bullied into talks.
While leaving the door open for a nuclear pact with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign that he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports towards zero.
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