Trump says favors ‘direct talks’ with Iran on nuclear dossier
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he wanted “direct talks” with Tehran on a nuclear deal, after he threatened to bomb Iran over its nuclear program.
Trump has given Iran’s leaders a two-month deadline to reach an agreement on the country’s nuclear program, which has strained relations with Western nations for decades.
Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has denied, insisting its enrichment activities were solely for peaceful purposes, AFP reported.
“I think it’s better if we have direct talks,” he told reporters onboard the presidential plane Air Force One.
“I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last week that Tehran would not engage in direct talks with Washington “until there is a change in the other side’s approach towards the Islamic republic.”
On Wednesday, Araghchi reiterated Tehran’s readiness to take part in indirect negotiations with the US, warning that US threats are “complicating” the current situation.
“The Islamic Republic, as in the past, is ready for real negotiations from an equal position and indirectly,” Araghchi said in a phone call with his Dutch counterpart, Caspar Veldkamp. He stressed that this “requires a constructive atmosphere and the avoidance of approaches based on threats, intimidation and blackmail.”
Trump in his first term ripped up a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by predecessor Barack Obama and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
“They wanted to use intermediaries, I don’t think that’s necessarily true anymore,” Trump said.
“I think they’re concerned, I think they feel vulnerable. I don’t want them to feel that way,” he added. “I think they want to meet.”
Trump said last month he had written to Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to call for nuclear negotiations and warn of possible military action if Tehran refused.
Ayatollah Khamenei responded by saying that US threats “will get them nowhere” and warned of reciprocal measures “if they do anything malign” against Iran.