Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has ruled out imminent nuclear negotiations with the United States but said talks with the European powers and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are planned for coming days.
"There are contradictory messages from the (negotiating) U.S. side received through the intermediaries which are in conflict with statements of American politicians", he said in an exclusive interview with official IRNA news agency.
Tehran and Washington were involved in indirect nuclear negotiations mediated by Oman but their talks were disrupted after the U.S. joined Israel’s airstrikes last June and bombed Iran’s civilian nuclear sites.
While Iran has laid down the condition it shall not be attacked again by the U.S. during nuclear negotiations, Araghchi said that demanding "war compensation is an item on the agenda of the talks in future and not a precondition".
He added, the U.S. resorted to military action against Iran after it "failed to impose its zero-enrichment condition" because an influential lobby in Washington forced American negotiators "to refuse the shortcut solutions" proposed in the talks.
Reiterating Iran’s position that zero-enrichment is a red line, Araghchi said, "U.S. will not achieve its objective in the talks after it failed to accomplish it in a war".
In the meantime, the visiting Swiss National Security Advisor Gabriel Luchsinger held meetings in Tehran with Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Issues Majid Takht-Ravanchi and the new Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani who is also a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khameni.
There were unconfirmed reports that Luchsinger has forwarded a message from Washington for resumption of the nuclear talks with Tehran.
Switzerland has been representing U.S. interests in Iran since 1980, following the severance of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 which toppled the pro-West monarchy.
The Iranian foreign minister also said that talks with the European troika of France, Germany and the UK (E3) as well as the IAEA are likely to take place over the next few days.
According to Araghchi, the E3 has realised that its threat for calling for reactivation of the snapback mechanism or fast return of UN nuclear sanctions on August 31 will not work.
"It is why E3 suggested extension of the UN Resolution 2231 (beyond October 18)" which Iran has rejected, he added.
"The European powers are no longer a party to the 2015 JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement. They lack the legal, political and ethical position to demand for the return of sanctions."
Local news media reported that China and Russia which are both signatories of JCPOA and permanent members of the UN Security Council wielding the veto power have ruled out any justification for reactivation of UN nuclear sanctions against Iran.
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