Iran says no nuclear talks if US insists it stop enrichment

Korea Herald

2 days ago

TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) -- Iran said on Monday there would be no new nuclear talks with the US if they were conditioned on Tehran abandoning its uranium enrichment activities.
Washington and Tehran had been engaged in several rounds of negotiations seeking to strike a deal on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, but Israel derailed the talks when it launched a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis, touching off 12 days of war.
Since the end of the hostilities, both Iran and the US have signalled willingness to return to the table, though Tehran has said it will not renounce its right to the peaceful use of nuclear power.
"If the negotiations must be conditioned on stopping enrichment, such negotiations will not take place," Ali Velayati, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
The remarks came after Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran had not set a date for any meeting with the US.
"For now, no specific date, time or location has been determined regarding this matter," Baqaei said of plans for a meeting between Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff.
Araghchi and Witkoff had previously failed to conclude a deal after five rounds of talks that began in April and were the highest-level contact between the two countries since Washington abandoned a landmark nuclear agreement in 2018.
The Omani-mediated negotiations were halted as Israel launched its surprise attack on Iranian nuclear and military facilities on June 13, with the US later joining its ally and carrying out limited strikes.
"We have been serious in diplomacy and the negotiation process, we entered with good faith, but as everyone witnessed, before the sixth round the Zionist regime, in coordination with the United States, committed military aggression against Iran," Baqaei said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement on Monday that Iran "supports diplomacy and constructive engagement."
"We continue to believe that the window for diplomacy remains open, and we will seriously pursue this peaceful path." Israel and Western nations accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.
While it is the only non-nuclear weapons power to enrich uranium to 60-percent purity -- close to the level needed for a warhead -- the UN's atomic energy watchdog has said it had no indication Iran was working to weaponise its stockpiles.
Israel's offensive, which it said was aimed at thwarting a nuclear threat from the Islamic republic, killed nuclear scientists and top-ranking military officers, but also hit residential areas.
The US launched its own set of strikes on June 22, hitting Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Fordo in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
Iran responded with missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli cities, and attacked a US base in Qatar in retaliation for Washington's strikes.
The extent of the damage to the Islamic republic's nuclear program remains unknown, and Baqaei said it was "still under investigation."
Pezeshkian in his latest statement warned of an "even more crushing retaliation" to any "new aggression against Iranian territory."
Baqaei said on Monday that Iran remained in contact with Britain, France and Germany, the three European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal that the US later withdrew from.
The Europeans have threatened to trigger the deal's "snapback" mechanism, which allows the reimposition of UN sanctions in the event of non-compliance.
Baqaei said Tehran was "in continuous contact with these three countries," but added that he "cannot provide an exact date" for the next meeting with them.
There was "no legal, moral or political basis" for reimposing sanctions, according to Baqaei, as Iran was still committed to the 2015 agreement.
He added that such a move would be met with an "appropriate and proportionate" response, following Iranian threats to quit the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
After the US pulled out of the 2015 deal with Iran during Donald Trump's first term as president, Tehran began rolling back its commitments to the agreement, which restricted its atomic activities in return for sanctions relief.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran still considers itself a member of the JCPOA," Baqaei said, referring to the 2015 deal.