🔗 Share this article

Tehran is ready to resume nuclear talks with the United States on condition that it is handled with "respect" and "respect", Tehran's foreign minister has declared.

Abbas Araghchi said solely negotiations was effective, and revealed new appeals had been made by go-betweens to restart negotiations with the US government. He claimed Iran had zero secret atomic facilities, and Tehran could not yet authorize the global atomic watchdog to access bombed nuclear sites for safety concerns.

Walking a Difficult Route

Araghchi is navigating a complex path since Iran wishes not to be seen to be operating from a situation of disadvantage, and he emphatically stated that Iran had arisen stronger defensively and psychologically from the coordinated strike on its atomic facilities in June.

He was speaking at a security conference in Tehran where he restated that Iran had "an absolute privilege to process nuclear material within its borders that it will perpetually retain" – the key factor of the stalemate in the previous talks.

Previous Discussions Abruptly Ended

The previous five rounds of negotiations between the US and Iran were concluded unexpectedly and bitter end on 12 June when the Israeli government, with US support, targeted Tehran's atomic facilities in a 12-day war that ended with the US president asserting the sites had been eliminated. Following this, Western states employed their privilege to reinstate international penalties, but Iran asserts they have not had a substantial consequence.

Perfect Agreement Offered

Iran's diplomats said they felt they had achieved a "ideal resolution" to the uranium processing matter in prior discussions, when it was decided an Iran-based consortium with US participation could process nuclear material. Each party would have been able to assert triumph since home-based processing would have remained and the US could be confident that Iran's nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful.

It had not been agreed in the talks that American atomic experts could function within Iranian territory, but that was a reasonable assumption of the consortium proposal. Diplomats asserted on multiple occasions they had secured an understanding with the US representative Steve Witkoff only for the agreement to fall apart due to "detractors in America".

Present Situation

Iranian officials stated the consortium offer was now no longer available, but it seems very probable the suggestion could be revived in certain ways if negotiations reopen.

The US president recently claimed he had been receiving messages that Iran desired to reopen negotiations, but in private Iranian officials claim they are not yet getting clear proposals from the United States either directly or from key regional mediators, such as Qatar, Egypt, the Omani authorities and Saudi Arabia. The Iran's state department has been charged of inactivity in the aftermath of Washington's unmediated tactics, but Iran says diplomacy is not part of a spectacle.

Diplomatic Standpoint

In his address to the conference, aimed to paint the US as a dominant force that exploits the notion of international law, Araghchi declared the 12-day war revealed the dispute could not be ended by armed force. He stated the assaults started with a US demand for an complete Tehran capitulation and ended with an complete request for a truce.

Iran is convinced the first strikes by Israel were executed with full US knowledge and cooperation, making faith difficult to rebuild.

Negotiations Remains the Final Resolution

The foreign minister said: "It was not Iran that had fled negotiations; it was America and the western countries that had consistently attempted to dictate their demands during the discussions. Dialogue can still be alive and remains the final resolution to settle disagreements, but its standards, rules and fundamentals must be respected."

"In case they speak to the nation of Iran with the language of dignity and honor, they will get a response in the equivalent approach."

Restoration and Rebuilding

In what is described by Tehran representatives as the struggle of repair and rebuilding, Araghchi stated he was assured Iran's security strengths "are much stronger than before 13 or 14 June of this year. All our capabilities have been restored. We acquired numerous insights from this engagement; we have discovered our internal vulnerabilities and the vulnerabilities of the enemy."

He continued: "We effectively endured this war. Our nuclear technology, which they aimed to obliterate, stays intact. The installations and equipment, if damaged, will be reconstructed; what is crucial is the resolve of the citizens of Tehran and then the unity of the country that they aimed at, but were unable to destroy. The Iranian people have developed more resilient, more cohesive, and more endorsing of the administration and the state in the aftermath of this attack."