Iran wants pressure relief or talks with US ‘impossible’

Dubai — Talks with the US are impossible unless Washington changes its pressure policy, the Iranian foreign minister said on Sunday, as Iran prepares to respond to President Donald Trump’s letter proposing negotiations on a new nuclear deal.

Trump said earlier this month that he had sent the letter to Iran’s top authority, Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning that “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal”.

Khamenei rejected the US offer for talks as “a deception”, saying negotiating with the Trump administration would “tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure on Iran”.

However, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday Tehran would soon reply to both the letter’s “threats and opportunities”.

While leaving the door open for a nuclear pact with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign he applied in his first term as president, including efforts to drive down the country’s oil exports to zero.

The US has issued four rounds of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales since Trump’s return to the White House.

“Under these conditions, it is no longer possible to enter into talks with America. Unless certain approaches change,” Araghchi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.

“When we say no to negotiations with the US, it stems from a history and experience,” he said, referring to Trump’s withdrawal from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers in his first term.

After ditching the nuclear pact in 2018, Trump reimposed US sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. A year later, Tehran started breaching the pact’s curbs on Tehran’s nuclear programme and has far surpassed its limits.

Months of indirect talks between Tehran and Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden to revive the 2015 nuclear deal failed.

“In my opinion, the 2015 pact in its current form cannot be revived. It would not be in our interest because our nuclear situation has advanced significantly and we can no longer return to previous conditions,” Araqchi said.

But he said the 2015 pact could still be “a basis and model for negotiations”.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said last month that time is running out for a deal to rein in Iran’s nuclear programme as Tehran continues to accelerate its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade.

Tehran has long said the programme is only for peaceful purposes.

Reuters