Iran Dismisses ‘Pointless’ Direct Negotiations with US | Nuclear Weapons Update

As the war of words over the nuclear weapons deal escalates, Foreign Minister Araghchi says Iran wants talks on “equal footing.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has dismissed the prospect of direct negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program as “meaningless,” as tensions between the two countries continue to rise.

Araghchi’s comments came in a statement on Sunday, following a letter sent by U.S. President Donald Trump last month to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which Trump expressed hope for negotiations aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Trump escalated the situation last week, stating, “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing.”

Araghchi questioned Washington’s sincerity in calling for talks, asking, “If you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?”

Tehran, which insists it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, has so far rejected Washington’s overtures but has expressed openness to indirect diplomacy—a position reiterated by Araghchi in his Sunday statement.

Araghchi emphasized that Iran is willing to negotiate with the U.S. on an “equal footing,” describing the U.S. as “a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials.”

Upping the Ante

Western countries, led by the U.S., have long accused Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal between Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council that provided Iran with sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

Since then, Iran has scaled back its commitments under the agreement, accumulating enough fissile material for multiple bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which conducts inspections of Iranian nuclear sites.

In response to Trump’s threat of war, Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, stated on Saturday that the country is “ready” for war.

“We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying.

However, Tehran’s regional influence appears to have weakened amid the ongoing war in Gaza and other developments, including Israel’s targeting of Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon and the toppling of another key ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, last year.

Iran maintains that its nuclear activities are solely for civilian purposes. Meanwhile, Israel, the U.S.’s top ally in the region, is widely believed to possess an undeclared nuclear arsenal.