The United States must rule out any new attack against Iran if you want to resume diplomatic conversations. Tehran Foreign Vice Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi. The Trump administration told Iran through mediators that he wanted to return to negotiations this week, but he had not made clear his position on the “very important issue” of new attacks while the conversations are held.
The United States and Iran were involved in conversations about Iranian when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites and military infrastructure earlier this month and Iran responded with missiles. The United States was directly involved in the conflict on June 21 when it bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran.
Takht-Ravanchi also said they will “insist” to enrich uranium for what they say are peaceful ends, rejecting accusations that they are secretly moving towards the development of a nuclear bomb. He said that Iran had “denied access to the nuclear material” for his research program, so they needed to “trust ourselves.”
“The level of that can be discussed, the capacity can be discussed, but say that it should not be enriched, that zero enrichment must be taken, and if they do not agree, we will bombard them, that is the law of the jungle,” said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Israel began its attacks, aiming at nuclear and military facilities, as well as killing commanders and scientists, in Iran on June 13, stating that Tehran was close to building a nuclear weapon.
Iran responded by attacking Israel and hostilities continued for 12 days, during which the United States launched bombs on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahán.
It is not clear the scope of the damage caused to Iran’s nuclear program by US attacks, and Takht-Ravanchi said he could not give an exact evaluation.
The president of the United States, said Monday that “offers nothing to Iran” in the face of negotiations about its nuclear program, while insisting that it was “totally eliminated” with the bombings released by the United States against the facilities of Fordow, Isfahán and Natanz. “Tell the false Democratic senator Chris Coans that I am not offering anything to Iran, unlike (former president Barack) Obama, who paid billions of dollars under the stupid ‘way to a nuclear weapon Jcpoa, which would have already expired,” he said, in reference to the historical nuclear agreement of 2015.
Trump, who during his first mandate unilaterally brought Washington out of the aforementioned agreement -which imposed restrictions and supervisions to the Iran nuclear program in exchange for a removal of sanctions -has also stressed that “he is not even speaking” with the Iranian government, since the United States “totally eliminated its nuclear facilities.”
What about the OIEA
Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA), said that, while US President Donald Trump declared that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “totally destroyed.”
Grossi also said that Iran had the ability to resume uranium enrichment in “a matter of months.” In response, Takht-Ravanchi said he did not know if that would be the case.
Iran’s relationship with the OIEA has become increasingly tense. On Wednesday, his Parliament decided to suspend cooperation with the atomic control agency, accusing the OIEA of aligning with Israel and the United States.
Trump has said that he would consider “absolutely” bombing will again if intelligence discovered that this country could enrich uranium at worrying levels.
Takht-Ravanchi said that no date had been agreed for a possible return to the conversations and that he did not know what would be on the agenda, after Trump suggested that the discussions could take place this week.
Iran’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs said: “At this time we are looking for an answer to this question: are we going to witness a repetition of an act of aggression while we are dialogue?”
He said that the United States has to be “quite clear in this important issue” and “what will offer us to generate the necessary confidence required for that dialogue.”
When asked if Iran could consider rethinking its nuclear program as part of any agreement, possibly in exchange for a relief of sanctions and investments in the country, Takht-Ravanchi said: “Why should we accept such a proposal?”
He reiterated that Iran’s program, including 60%uranium enrichment, had “peaceful ends.”
By virtue of a 2015 nuclear agreement with the world powers, Iran was not allowed to enrich uranium above 3.67% purity (the level required for the fuel of commercial nuclear power plants) and no enrichment was allowed to perform any enrichment in its fordo plant for 15 years.
However, Trump left the agreement in 2018 during his first term as president, arguing that he was too little to stop the road to a bomb, and restored US sanctions.
Iran responded increasingly restrictions. The OIEA claimed to have resumed enrichment in Fordo in 2021 and have reached approximately 60% enrichment – a very short technical step to reach the degree of weapons, or 90% -, which would allow potentially manufacturing nine nuclear bombs.
Pressing about the lack of trust of European and Western leaders towards Iran, Takht-Ravanchi accused some European leaders to “ridiculous” the US and Israeli attacks “ridiculous”.
He said that those who criticize Iran for their nuclear program “should criticize the way we have been treated” and criticize the United States and Israel.
He added: “And if they do not have the courage to criticize the United States, they should remain silent and not try to justify the aggression.”
Takht-Ravanchi also said that Iran had received messages through mediators that the United States “did not want to get involved in a regime change in Iran” attacking the country’s supreme leader, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, asked the Iranians to “get up for their freedom” to overthrow Jamenei’s clerical regime, but, after the fire was reached, the fire last week, Trump said he did not want the same.
Takht-Ravanchi insisted that this would not happen and that the idea “was equivalent to a useless exercise.”
He said that although some Iranians “may have criticism about some government actions, in the case of a foreign aggression will be united to face it.”
The Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs said that “it is not entirely clear” if the high fire with Israel will last, but Iran will continue to respect it “as long as there is no military attack against us.”
He said that Iran’s Arab allies in the Persian Gulf were “doing everything possible to create the necessary environment for dialogue.” It is known that Qatar has played a key role in the mediation of high the current fire.
He added: «We do not want war. We want to dialogue and dialogue, but we must be prepared, be cautious, so as not to be caught again ».
