Araghchi to Trump:
Doubling down on failed policies not to resolve issues
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran’s nuclear issue could only be resolved through a negotiated solution, warning the United States against repeating past miscalculations about the Islamic Republic.
In a post on his x account on Tuesday, Araghchi revealed new details about the near success of previous nuclear negotiations with Washington, noting that Tehran and US envoy Steve Witkoff had been on the verge of a “new and historic” agreement before political interference and misinformation derailed the process.
“Upon embarking for a 5th round of talks with Steve Witkoff on May 23, I wrote: ‘Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal’,” Araghchi wrote.
“If POTUS was to glance at the minutes of those talks — recorded by our interlocutor — he would see just how close we were to celebrating a new and historic Iran nuclear deal,” he said.
In his remarks, the Iranian foreign minister pointed to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 on the pretext of the Arab country’s development of weapons of mass destruction. “POTUS should also recall that there was never any ‘intelligence’ that Iraq was hiding WMDs. There were only unfathomable destruction, thousands of dead American soldiers, and 7 trillion American taxpayer dollars down the drain,” Araghchi said.
Araghchi compared the current approach to that period, noting, “Likewise, there is no ‘intelligence’ showing that Iran was a month away from developing nuclear weapons had Israel not deceived the US into attacking the Iranian people.”
He said the Israeli regime, after the failure of that operation, “is now trying to fabricate an imaginary threat out of Iran’s defensive capabilities,” while “Americans are tired of fighting Israel’s endless wars.”
Underscoring Iran’s resilience, Araghchi said, “Iran is a great nation, the heir to a great ancient civilization. Buildings and machinery may be destroyed, but our willpower will never be shaken. Insisting on such miscalculations will solve nothing. There is no solution other than reaching a negotiated one.”
On June 13, Israel launched an unprovoked aggression against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that killed at least 1,064 people in the country, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians.
The United States also entered the war by bombing three peaceful Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of international law.
In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.