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13-07-2024
TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON: Iran is still conducting indirect nuclear talks with the United States via Oman, the country’s Etemad newspaper on Thursday quoted Iran’s acting foreign minister as saying.
Ali Bagheri Kani’s reported comments followed remarks on Monday in which a White House spokesperson said the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran under the newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
“Indirect talks are being conducted through Oman but the negotiation process is confidential and its details cannot be recounted,” Bagheri Kani was quoted as saying.
Efforts were being made to leave “suitable grounds” for negotiations for the new Iranian government that will take office in the next few weeks.
Pezeshkian, a low-profile moderate who won Iran’s run-off presidential vote last week, has said he will promote a pragmatic foreign policy and ease tensions with the six powers that have been involved in now-stalled nuclear talks to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.
However, foreign policy in Iran is ultimately decided by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who warned last month prior to elections that “one who thinks that nothing can be done without the favor of America will not manage the country well.”
Pezeshkian is taking office at a time of growing Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and over cross-border fire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which have exacerbated disputes between Tehran and Washington.
In a letter to Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, Pezeshkian reiterated on Wednesday Tehran’s continued support for Palestinians against “the occupation of the Zionist regime (Israel)”.
Hezbollah and Hamas are part of a group of Iranian-backed factions in the region known as the Axis of Resistance.
The US is not engaged in any nuclear talks with Iran, the White House national security spokesman told 
Iran International on Thursday, denying the Iranian top diplomat’s claim about ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington via Oman. Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani said nuclear talks with the US are ongoing through indirect negotiations mediated by Oman.
However, White House national security communications advisor John Kirby categorically denied Bagheri’s remarks and said, “No active negotiations are going on right now with respect to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
“I won’t speak or can’t speak to channels of communication with Iran one way or the other, but there are no active negotiations going on to restore the nuclear deal,” Kirby told Iran International’s Samira Gharaei on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s summit in Washington DC.
Kirby said “the reason for that is because Iran was killing its own people in protests activity. Iran was continuing to spin centrifuges. Iran was continuing to support terrorist groups. And in the early stages of the negotiations, Iran was making unnecessary demands that made it impossible for us to do that. They weren’t negotiating in good faith.”
The White House national security spokesman reiterated the US president’s commitment to making sure Tehran would never develop nuclear weapons, and said, “We’d love to be able to do that through diplomacy but right now, there’s not a path, a diplomatic path ahead of us.” US Senator James Lankford (R-OK) told Iran International’s Arash Alaei that Washington had not engaged in direct negotiations with Tehran for a long time for a “good reason,” pointing out to the oppressive nature of the Iranian government. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
