Iran top diplomat rejects direct negotiations with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says direct negotiations with the US is “meaningless”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday rejected direct negotiations with the US as “meaningless”, after US President Donald Trump said he would prefer direct talks with the Islamic republic.

Mr Trump had called last month on Tehran to hold negotiations on its nuclear program with the US, but threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy failed. The US president said he would prefer to hold “direct talks”.

“I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries,” he argued.

But on Sunday, Mr Araghchi said “direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials”.

“We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations,” he added, according to a foreign ministry statement.

“Iran keeps itself prepared for all possible or probable events, and just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiations, it will also be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty,” Mr Araghchi said.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was willing to engage in dialogue with the US “on equal footing”.

He also questioned Washington’s sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying “if you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?”.

Western countries, led by the US, have for decades accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran rejects the allegation and maintains that its nuclear activities exist solely for civilian purposes.

On Saturday, Hossein Salami, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the country was “ready” for war. “We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,” the official said.

Ali Larijani, a close adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that while Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, it would “have no choice but to do so” in the event of an attack against it.

AFP