Iran says it could rejoin US nuclear talks if treated with ‘dignity and respect’ | Iran’s nuclear programme
Iran’s foreign minister told the Guardian that Tehran is ready to restart nuclear talks with Washington as long as it is treated with “dignity and respect”.
Abbas Araghchi said that only diplomacy works and announced that new demands have come from intermediaries to restart negotiations with the Trump administration. He said Iran did not have any undeclared nuclear sites and that Tehran could not yet allow the UN nuclear inspectorate to visit bombed nuclear sites for security reasons.
Araghchi is treading a difficult path as Iran does not want to appear to be operating from a position of weakness, and has repeatedly emphasized that Iran emerged militarily and psychologically stronger from the Israeli-US attack on its nuclear facilities in June.
He was speaking at a security conference in Tehran and restated that Iran “has an inalienable right to enrich uranium domestically and can never give up”; this was the main reason for the impasse in previous talks.
Five previous rounds of talks between the US and Iran ended abruptly and acrimoniously with a 12-day war that ended on June 12 when Israel, with US support, attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities and Donald Trump claimed those facilities had been destroyed. European countries subsequently exercised their right to reimpose UN-wide sanctions, but Iran insists they did not have a major impact.
Iranian officials said they felt they had reached a “magic solution” to the enrichment issue in previous talks when an agreement was reached that an Iran-based consortium with American participation could enrich uranium. Both sides could claim victory, as domestic enrichment would continue and the United States could ensure that Iran’s nuclear program was completely peaceful.
The talks did not reach agreement that US nuclear scientists could operate in Iran, but this was a logical consequence of the consortium proposal. Officials claimed that they reached an agreement with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff three times, but the agreement collapsed due to “spoilers in Washington”.
Iranian officials have said that the consortium offer is currently off the table, but there appears to be a high possibility that the offer will be revived in some way if talks resume.
Trump said last week he had received messages that Iran wanted to restart talks, but Iranian officials say privately they have yet to receive coherent offers from Washington or key regional mediators such as Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Iran’s foreign ministry has been accused of remaining passive in the face of Trump’s direct, instinctive approach, but Tehran says the diplomacy is not part of a show.
Araghchi, in his speech at the forum aimed at portraying the USA as a hegemonic power that abuses the concept of international law, said that the 12-day war showed that the conflict cannot be ended by military means. He said the attacks began with a US demand for Iran’s unconditional surrender and ended with a call for an unconditional ceasefire.
Iran believes that Israel’s initial attacks were carried out with the full knowledge and coordination of the United States, making it difficult to rebuild trust.
“It was not Iran that eschewed diplomacy; it was America and western countries that always tried to impose their will during negotiations. Diplomacy may still be alive and remain the ultimate solution to resolve disputes, but its criteria, rules and principles must be followed,” Araghchi said.
“If they speak to the Iranian people in a dignified and respectful language, they will receive a response in the same language.”
In the conflict, which Iranian officials described as a war of repair and recovery, Araghchi said he was confident that Iran’s defensive capabilities were “much stronger than before June 13 or 14 of this year. All our capabilities have been restored. We learned many lessons from this war; we learned both our own weak points and the enemy’s weak points.”
“We have successfully passed this war. Our nuclear technology, which they wanted to destroy, remains in place. If the facilities and equipment are destroyed, they will be rebuilt; what is important is the will of the Iranian people and then the national unity, which they targeted but could not break. The Iranian people became stronger, more united, and more supportive of the government and the state in the face of this invasion.”
