Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country favors negotiations with the United States to avoid war, but rejected what he described as threats by President Donald Trump.
“We are not seeking war, we favor negotiation and dialogue, but we are not afraid of threats either, and we will in no way retreat from our legal rights,” Pezeshkian said at an event at the port city of Bandar Abbas Saturday.
It’s unclear what comments Pezeshkian was referring to, but Trump told reporters during a trip to the Middle East this week that Iran has to “move quickly” in the negotiations with the US or “something bad’s gonna happen.”
The US and Iran concluded Sunday their fourth round of talks in Oman, aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and stopping its uranium enrichment program. A new round has not yet been announced.
“No one but Trump himself believes his words against the Iranian nation,” Pezeshkian said. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and stability and, on the other hand, he threatens (us) with the most sophisticated tools for homicide and with contradictory statements. He simultaneously sends messages of peace, bloodshed and insecurity.”
Also on Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referred to unspecified comments by Trump on Iran, calling them a “disgrace to the American nation” and “not worthy of a response at all.”
Trump said Friday that the US had put forward a formal proposal for a nuclear deal, but Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the same day that Iran had not received any such written proposals from Washington, either directly or indirectly.
“There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes: a right afforded to all other (Non-Proliferation Treaty) signatories, too,” Araghchi said.
In an interview with Breitbart last week, US foreign envoy Steve Witkoff said Iran’s uranium enrichment program must be dismantled, though in an earlier interview with Fox News he had suggested that Iran could be allowed to enrich uranium to low levels.
The most recent round of talks between the US and Iran, in the Omani capital Muscat, was described by the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson as “difficult.”
A senior Trump administration official gave a more positive assessment, telling CNN the discussions, which lasted over three hours, were encouraging.
During his Gulf tour, Trump repeatedly warned that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon, threatening to strike the country if it fails to reach a nuclear deal with the US. But he has not explicitly ruled out Iran enriching uranium. While enriched uranium can be used for peaceful purposes such as energy generation, it can be turned into a weapon if enriched to high levels.
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