Iran, US reaffirm commitment to diplomacy at UN, but gap on a nuclear deal remains wide
The sixth round of talks between Washington and Tehran was planned to be held immediately after Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June. In this war, the United States joined Israel in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. The talks were canceled and in September Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected any direct nuclear talks with the United States.
But Iran’s UN Ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told the Security Council that “Iran remains fully committed to principled diplomacy and genuine negotiations.” And he said it was now up to France, Britain and the United States to reverse course and take concrete, credible steps to restore trust.
He said Iran was adhering to the basic principles of the 2015 nuclear deal, which aimed to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons and in which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany in 2018.
In a rare public exchange between diplomats from the two countries, US Mission adviser Morgan Ortagus, a Trump ally and former State Department spokeswoman, said: “The United States is ready for formal talks with Iran, but only if Tehran is ready for direct and meaningful dialogue.”
Ortagus said Trump extended the “hand of diplomacy” to Iran during both of his administrations. “But instead of holding the hand of diplomacy, you continue to put your hand in the fire,” he said, looking directly at Iravani. “Step away from the fire, sir, and hold President Trump’s diplomatic hand. This is being extended to you.”
But he emphasized that the Trump administration has been clear that enriching nuclear material in Iran is not possible, which is a major point of contention.
Irvani said the United States’ insistence on zero enrichment violates Iran’s rights under the 2015 agreement and shows that the United States is not conducting fair negotiations. He said that if France and Britain continued to side with the United States, “diplomacy would be effectively destroyed.”
Irvani said, “Iran will not bow to any pressure or intimidation.”
In September, the agreement’s three Western members (Britain, France and Germany) triggered a “fallback” mechanism to reimpose lifted sanctions, citing Iran’s failure to comply with the agreement’s terms.
As tensions between Tehran and Washington increased, Iran increased its uranium production to almost weapons level. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, reported that Iran has more than 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent; That’s a short, technical step away from the weapons-grade level of 90 percent.
France’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Jay Dharmadhikari, advocated for a “rollback” of UN sanctions and said Iran has been “increasingly flagrantly violating” all restrictions designed to ensure its nuclear program remains peaceful since 2019. But he said the reimposition of sanctions does not mean the end of efforts to find a diplomatic solution.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also told the French envoy: “You have failed miserably in your so-called diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue, and you know it.”
