Iran says it is willing to resume nuclear deal talks with US, demands 'respect and dignity'

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran is willing to restart nuclear pact talks with the United States, provided they are conducted with “dignity and respect”. In an interview with The Guardian, the Iranian diplomat said that only diplomacy can resolve the persistent tension between Iran and the West.

He told the British news outlet that fresh requests had come from intermediaries to reopen negotiations with the Trump administration. Araghchi also maintained that Iran did not have any undeclared nuclear sites, and Tehran could not yet allow the UN nuclear inspectorate to visit bombed nuclear sites for security reasons. While speaking about the Israel-US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, Araghchi noted that the country has emerged stronger militarily and psychologically from the tragedy.

The remarks from the Iranian foreign minister came on the sidelines of the security conference in the country’s capital as he reiterated that Tehran has an inalienable right to enrich uranium domestically that it will never give up,” – the primary cause of the impasse in the previous talks.

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It is pertinent to note that the five rounds of talks between Iran and the United States were brought to an abrupt and acrimonious end on 12 June when Israel, with US support, attacked Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war that ended with Donald Trump claiming the sites had been obliterated. Subsequently, European nations also used their right to snap back sanctions on the West Asian nation after the 2015 JCPOA expired.

Iran remains optimistic

Iranian officials said they felt they had reached a “magic solution” to the enrichment issue in previous talks, when it was agreed that an Iran-based consortium, with American involvement, could enrich uranium. At that time, both sides claimed victory since domestic enrichment would have continued and the US would have assurance that Iran’s nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful.

Iranian officials claimed that they had reached an agreement with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff three times, only for the deal to collapse due to “spoilers in Washington”. Iran’s hope for renewed talks came a week after US President Donald Trump said he had been receiving messages that Tehran wanted to reopen negotiations.

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However, Iranian officials say they are not yet receiving coherent offers from Washington either directly or from key regional mediators, such as Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign ministry has been accused of passivity in the face of Trump’s direct instinctive approach, but Tehran says diplomacy is not part of a show.

In his speech at the Sunday forum, Araghchi said the 12-day war showed the conflict could not be ended by military means. He said the attacks started with a US demand for an unconditional Iranian surrender and ended with an unconditional call for a ceasefire.

“It was not Iran that had fled diplomacy; it was America and the Western countries that had always sought to impose their will during the negotiations. Diplomacy can still be alive and remains the ultimate solution to resolve disputes, but its criteria, rules and principles must be adhered to," Araghchi said in his address.

“If they speak to the Iranian people with the language of dignity and respect, they will receive a response in the same language," he added. The Iranian foreign minister maintained that he was confident that Tehran’s defence capabilities “are much stronger than before 13 or 14 June of this year. All our capabilities have been restored. We learned many lessons from this war; we have come to know our own weaknesses and the weaknesses of the enemy.”

“We successfully passed this war. Our nuclear technology, which they intended to destroy, remains in place. The facilities and equipment, if destroyed, will be rebuilt; what is important is the will of the Iranian people and then the national cohesion that they targeted, but failed to break. The Iranian people have become stronger, more united, and more supportive of the government and the state in the face of this invasion," he added.