Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Thursday said nuclear talks between his country and the United States are possible only on equal terms.
Recall that U.S. President Donald Trump last week said he had sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing nuclear talks but also warned that there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or through a deal.
“If we enter negotiations while the other side is imposing maximum pressure, we will be negotiating from a weak position and will achieve nothing.
“The other side must be convinced that the policy of pressure is ineffective — only then can we sit at the negotiating table on equal terms,” Araqchi said.
Khamenei said on Wednesday that talks with the Trump administration would simply tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure on Iran.
It could be recalled that in 2018, under Trump’s first presidency, the U.S. withdrew from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
However, Tehran reacted a year later by violating the deal’s nuclear curbs.
The Iranian leader, who has the final word in Iranian state matters, said last week that Tehran would not be bullied into talks.
Trump, while leaving the door open for a nuclear pact with Tehran, has reinstated the maximum pressure campaign he applied in his first term as president to isolate Iran from the global economy and drive its oil exports towards zero.
Khamenei had said that his country would not be bullied into negotiations, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had sent a letter to the country’s top authority urging Tehran to negotiate a nuclear deal.
