Iran says it might consider negotiations only to ease nuclear ‘militarization’ concerns
Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations says no negotiations will take place if the objective is to dismantle the country’s nuclear program.
IRNA- Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations says the Islamic Republic might consider holding negotiations only if the objective is to ease concerns about the “potential militarization” of its nuclear program.
“If the objective of negotiations is to address concerns regarding any potential militarization of Iran’s nuclear program, such discussions may be subject to consideration,” the mission said in a statement on X on Sunday.
Weeks after signing an order restoring maximum pressure on Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Friday that he had sent a letter to Iran, asking that negotiations be reopened.
During his first term, Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from a multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2015, and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on the country, which the accord had lifted.
“Should the aim be the dismantlement of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program to claim that what Obama failed to achieve has now been accomplished, such negotiations will never take place,” Iran’s mission to the U.N. said in the statement.
Addressing government officials on Saturday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei reiterated that Iran rejects a push by “bullying governments” to open negotiations.
The Leader said that such gestures for diplomacy were not a genuine attempt at resolving the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, but an effort to impose their excessive demands on the country.
