Araghchi urges US to try ‘real diplomacy’ instead of deceiving world
FM spox faults American outreach as ‘propaganda ploy’
The Iranian foreign minister censured on Wednesday latest comments by an American diplomat at the UN Security Council regarding negotiations with the Islamic Republic, saying her remarks are indicative of coercion rather than genuine diplomacy.
Abbas Araghchi was responding to remarks made by Morgan Ortagus, the US deputy special envoy for West Asia and adviser to the US mission to the United Nations, during a UN Security Council meeting focusing on Iran and its peaceful nuclear program.
Ortagus claimed at the meeting that US President Donald Trump was extending a “hand of diplomacy” toward Iran and that it would be wise for Tehran to accept it.
The US diplomat also said the United States is ready for formal negotiations, provided that the Islamic Republic completely abandons uranium enrichment and agrees to direct talks.
“A new definition of diplomacy by the US: ‘We are ready for a meaningful negotiation, but forget about your internationally recognized rights.’ This is dictation and not negotiation, let alone a meaningful one,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X.
He added that the world had witnessed Iran’s approach to negotiations when the United States “opted to open fire on our people and torpedoed diplomacy.”
“We did what we always do: resist and confront those who assault us, and make sure they regret it,” Araghchi said.
The Iranian foreign minister also rapped Washington’s claims of pursuing diplomacy, saying, “‘Extending the hand of diplomacy’ does not entail sending bombers and then crow about their failure as a success.”
Araghchi concluded by calling on the United States to “try real and honest diplomacy instead of attempting to deceive the world.”
In another development on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei dismissed comments by Ortagus as “propaganda ploy aimed at deceiving public opinion.”
“The US representative's rhetoric on diplomacy and negotiation is merely a propaganda ploy aimed at deceiving public opinion,” Baqaei said. “Unlike Iran, which has always remained committed to ‘meaningful’ diplomacy, the United States has demonstrated neither good faith nor seriousness.”
The Israeli regime launched an unprovoked war against Iran on June 13, assassinating a number of top military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.
More than a week later, the United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
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.
On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault.