The Supreme Leader has criticized the United States for abandoning nuclear deals, imposing sanctions and questioning the value of the consultation.
Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the US offer to hold talks on the nuclear program is an attempt to deceive global public opinion after a letter from President Donald Trump has arrived to encourage negotiations.
Last week, Trump said he wrote to Iranian leaders asking him to negotiate a new contract with Tehran to curb the rapidly moving forward nuclear program.
The letter was handed over to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araguch on Wednesday by Anwar Galgash, a diplomatic advisor to the President of the United Arab Emirates.
While the two officials were meeting, the Supreme Leader told a group of college students that Trump’s offer was a “deception aimed at shaping global opinions.”
“We negotiated for years, reached a fully and signed contract and this individual tore it,” Kahanei said. “How can we negotiate under these circumstances? …What is the point of negotiation when we know they won’t?”
He mentioned the 2015 nuclear agreement that Tehran signed with a world power to cut nuclear activity in exchange for relief from sanctions. In 2018, during his first term, Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of trade and imposed new economic restrictions on Iran. Tehran responded a year later by violating the nuclear curb of the transaction.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has shown his desire to negotiate, while reviving policies regarding “maximum pressure” on Iran.
Khamenei said he was negotiating with the Trump administration, but said he had excessive demands.
Iran has long denied calling for the development of nuclear weapons.
“If we want to build nuclear weapons, the US won’t be able to stop it. We ourselves don’t want it,” Khamenei said.
However, Iran’s uranium stocks have been enriched to a purity of up to 60%, close to about 90% weapons grade levels, the International Atomic Energy Agency said later last month.
UNSC Meeting
Araguchi also condemned the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday as a new process of questioning the goodwill of states demanding Iran’s nuclear work.
Six of the Council’s 15 members – France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, the UK and the US have requested a meeting on Iran’s expansion of inventory near arms-grade uranium.
Aragut said Iran will soon hold fifth round talks with France, the UK and Germany.
“Consultations with Europeans are ongoing and continuing. However, the decision of the UN Security Council or the UN Nuclear Watch Agency to put pressure on us will question the legitimacy of these consultations,” Araguchi said.
Separately, China’s foreign ministry said China and Russia will hold talks with Iranian officials in Beijing on Friday to discuss Iran’s nuclear issue.
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