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Top security official:
Tehran ready for negotiations without predetermined outcome
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said on Wednesday that Iran is ready to hold “genuine negotiations” with the United States, which its outcome is not predetermined.
“The Americans try to portray themselves as the turning point of every global development, but this is a form of self-deception. WE ACCEPT GENUINE NEGOTIATIONS, not artificial ones, AND THE OUTCOME OF ANY NEGOTIATION MUST NOT BE PREDETERMINED”, Ali Larijani said in a post on X.
Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of nuclear talks since April, but a planned meeting on June 15 was cancelled after Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran, triggering the 12-day conflict.
During Iran-US talks, Washington insisted on zero uranium enrichment under any deal, which has been strongly rejected by Tehran.
Larijani’s comments came as Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited France to hold talks with his counterpart Jean Noel Barrot to discuss Iran’s nuclear program and the case of Iranian citizen held in France.
“This will be an opportunity for us to call on Iran to comply with its obligations towards the IAEA and for a swift resumption of cooperation with the agency,” Barrot said on Tuesday.
Iran’s nuclear program has been a source of contention with Western countries for more than two decades. While Iran insists that its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and aimed at civilian purposes such as energy production and medical research, Western powers have long expressed concern that Tehran could be seeking the capability to develop nuclear weapons.
Despite their failure to fulfil their commitments under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, France alongside Germany and Britain triggered the return of UN sanctions against Iran in October, that had been lifted under a now-defunct nuclear deal.
The 2015 deal, reached between Iran and the UN Security Council's permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany, imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
But it unraveled when the United States, during Donald Trump's first term as president, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
The Europeans had pledged continued support for the deal, but the mechanism intended to offset US sanctions never materialized effectively.