TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that Tehran will respond in the coming days to a letter from US President Donald Trump calling for new nuclear talks, through appropriate diplomatic channels.
Speaking on national television, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that as far as US President Donald Trump’s policies vis-à-vis Iran were concerned, the times had not changed.
“We will overcome the complexities of US politics and navigate those complexities to secure the interests and national security of Iran,” he said.
He also stated that Iran’s policy is clear. “We will not engage in direct negotiations under pressure, threats, or increased sanctions.”
On March 7, Trump said that he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging negotiations and warning of potential military action if Iran refused.
Khamenei, however, argued that the US invitation for talks was a tactic to mislead global public opinion by presenting the United States as open to negotiations and Iran as opposed.
Iran’s foreign ministry stated it would conduct a “thorough assessment” before responding to the letter, which was delivered by a senior UAE diplomat on March 12.
Araghchi said the response “will be sent through the appropriate channels,” without elaborating.
“We have before us the interests of the Iranian nation, and that’s where we will be moving toward,” he said.
“The situation brought about by America’s new president is not new to us, we experienced this ‘maximum pressure’ in his last term in office,” the foreign minister said.
On Wednesday, US news website Axios, citing a US official and other sources, reported that the letter included a “two-month deadline for reaching a new nuclear deal.”
Trump, who returned to the White House for a second term in January, has restored his “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions against Iran.
At the time, Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and world powers, and reimposed economic sanctions.
