Iran Denies Claims of Fresh Nuclear Talks With US

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, said on Sunday, June 29, that no arrangements have been made to resume nuclear negotiations with the US yet. Reports in US media stating otherwise are untrue, he said.

Ravanchi is part of the team that conducted five rounds of negotiations with the US before the US-backed Israeli aggression effectively ended the talks on June 13. He was speaking to the press after meeting with members of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Mehr News Agency reported.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Iranian ambassador to the UN Amir-Saeid Iravani also denied any talks are happening with the US, as long as Washington continues to try to dictate the terms to Iran.

“Negotiation has its principles, and it is a give and take process. So we should engage in the negotiation and discuss with each other, maybe we reach a conclusion or not, but unconditional surrender is not negotiation,” Iravani said.

Iravani pointed to President Donald Trump’s social media posts during and after the Israeli-US aggression against Iran, arguing that they do not represent the language of negotiation. He asserted that Iran is ready for negotiation but no one can dictate terms to it. 

The US and Israel have repeatedly claimed that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapons program in the garb of its civilian nuclear enrichment program. 

Despite both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran denying US and Israeli claims that Iran is attempting to develop nuclear weapons, the US joined the Israeli aggressions – amidst ongoing negotiations – bombing three Iranian nuclear sites on June 22 in an attempt to destroy its nuclear program.

Both Israel and the US claimed that Iran’s nuclear program was completely destroyed by their joint strikes. Iran, however, claims its nuclear plants are intact and it will soon restart enrichment as the damages from the US and Israeli air strikes were minimal.

Iran wants a world free of all WMDs

On June 26, CNN reported that the US is offering various economic and political concessions, including lifting sanctions on Iran, in an attempt to bring it back to the negotiating table. The report however, also underlined that the US is pushing for zero enrichment as its “non-negotiable” in return for those benefits.

Iran has maintained that it will never build a nuclear bomb but will also not compromise on its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. It has consistently asserted this is their sovereign right as a signatory to the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the country’s opposition to all forms of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) on Sunday during his speech on the anniversary of the chemical weapons attack on the Iranian city of Sardasht by the Iraqi forces in 1987.

Iran “as the greatest victim of chemical weapons in contemporary history, has been a staunch advocate of a world free of weapons of mass destruction and the principle initiator of the initiative for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons,” Araghchi claimed. He expressed his country’s hope that “the day will come when no human being shall fall victim to weapons of mass destruction, and peace and amity shall replace war and violence.”

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a formal statement on Monday, denounced Trump’s insulting comments against Iran and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, calling his social media posts about the country and its people “insolent”.

Trump, on various occasions, demanded the complete surrender of the Iranians, threatened the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and expressed the desire to bomb the country during Israeli aggressions. 

“Undoubtedly, insulting and bullying rhetoric directed at Iran and at political and religious figures revered by the Iranian people and Muslims worldwide serves only to deepen the global revulsion and indignation towards the US’ short-sighted policies, while further discrediting its purported desire for dialogue and engagement,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.  

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch