Iran’s economy could be opened up to American firms: Araghchi
‘Iranian market large enough to breathe new life into struggling US nuclear industry’
Iran’s top diplomat reiterated that the country’s trillion-dollar economic opportunity could be opened up to American companies as the two sides have begun negotiations to settle a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
The remarks are part of the text of a speech that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was to deliver at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference. His scheduled address was canceled on Monday.
Araghchi said that Iran has never stood in the way of economic and scientific cooperation with the US, stressing that the main obstacle has been previous US administrations, which often acted under the influence of certain special interest groups.
“As I recently explained in an article published by The Washington Post, the trillion-dollar economic opportunity that our country offers could be opened up to American companies. This includes firms that could help us generate clean power from non-hydrocarbon sources. Iran currently has only one operational reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Our long-term plan involves building at least 19 more reactors—meaning tens of billions of dollars in potential contracts are up for grabs. Iran’s market alone is large enough to breathe new life into America’s struggling nuclear industry,” he said.
Safeguarding economic interests
He underlined that any possible nuclear agreement between Tehran and Washington must be based on safeguarding Iran’s economic interests alongside a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
The Iranian foreign minister said that only such an approach can bring about long-term trust between the two sides. Araghchi added that the subject of negotiations should focus solely on lifting sanctions and the nuclear issue.
Iran’s security non-negotiable
The foreign minister said that in the turbulent West Asia region, “Iran will never put its security on the table.”
Iran and the US have engaged in talks to reach an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program which has been the source a decades-old dispute between Tehran and some Western countries.
Since April 12, the two sides have held two rounds of talks in Oman and Italy.
Araghchi and the US special envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff are leading the negotiations which are set to resume in Oman on Saturday.
So far, both sides have described the talks as “positive and constructive.”
Two days after the second round of negotiations, the US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US had very good talks with Iran.
The ongoing talks represent a historic moment, given the decades of enmity between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, setting off years of negotiations that failed to restore the accord.
Western countries including the US have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons – an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian purposes.