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10-02-2025
TEHRAN: Iran has said it is ready to negotiate with the United States but not under the “maximum pressure” strategy by Donald Trump.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement on Saturday that “the lifting of sanctions requires negotiations, but not within the framework of a ‘maximum pressure’ policy, because it would not be a negotiation but a form of surrender”.
Araghchi’s statement came after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the government not to negotiate with the US, calling such an approach “reckless”.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all strategic decisions in Iran, referred to Iran’s previous experience negotiating with Washington. In 2015, Iran struck a landmark deal with the US, France, Germany, United Kingdom, China and Russia to regulate its nuclear program in return for the easing of international sanctions.
However, during his first term in 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the agreement and reinstated heavy sanctions on Tehran, despite European opposition.
Trump on Wednesday called for a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran, adding that it “cannot have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons.
The US president, however, reinstated on Tuesday his “maximum pressure” policy, with Washington on Thursday announcing financial sanctions on entities and individuals accused of shipping hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil to China.
Aragchi said on Saturday that “Iran does not want to negotiate with a country that is simultaneously imposing new sanctions”.
Earlier, Iran hit out at the United States for imposing new sanctions against its oil industry, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned against mooted talks with Washington.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Friday condemned the sanctions, announced the previous day, as “illegitimate and unlawful,” the official IRNA news agency reported.
“The decision of the new US administration to exert pressure on the Iranian people by preventing Iran from conducting legitimate trade with its economic partners is an illegitimate and unlawful action,” spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.
Iran “holds the United States responsible for the consequences and repercussions of such unilateral and bullying actions”, he added.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later remarked that negotiation with the US is “not smart, wise or honorable”.
US President Donald Trump suggested earlier this week that he plans to raise the pressure on Iran and then reach a “verified nuclear peace agreement”.
During his previous term in office in 2018, Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 pact between Iran and world powers designed to control Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, and reimposed harsh sanctions.
Those measures prompted Tehran to violate the pact’s limitations.
“Negotiating with America is neither smart, wise, nor honorable. It will not solve any of our problems. The reason? Experience!” Khamenei was quoted as saying on Friday, adding that Iran had made concessions in the past but the US “tore up” previous agreements.
He warned that if the US threatens Iran’s security, Tehran “will threaten [the US’s] security”. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
