VIENNA (AP) – Iran’s top leader on Tuesday refused to negotiate directly with the US on his country’s nuclear program, and may have shut the door in a final ditch effort to halt the re-challenge of UN sanctions in Tehran.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments on television in Iranian states could constrain the possible outreach to the United States by Iranian President Masuud Pezeshkian in New York for the UN General Assembly. Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragut held a meeting with diplomats from France, Germany and the UK on a re-issue of sanctions, which are scheduled to come into effect on Sunday.
The discussion with the US represents a “pure dead end,” Khamenei said.
“The US has announced the results of the consultations in advance,” he added. “The outcome is the closure of nuclear activity and enrichment. This is not negotiation. It is a dictatt and an imposed.”
In a comment posted to X after a meeting with Araguchi, the German Foreign Ministry said France, Germany, the UK and the EU had urged Iran to take steps to address concerns about the nuclear program “if not hours” within days. It must resume and provide in-person talks with the US International Atomic Energy Agency The statement said.
Three European countries known as E3 have sparked a so-called “snapback” mechanism to revive sanctions as Tehran failed to comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at preventing the development of nuclear weapons.
Tuesday’s meeting did not appear to have approached the resolution before Saturday’s deadline. However, French diplomats said European leaders were planning to “use the rest of their time”; The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity. Because they were not given the authority to publicly discuss personal meetings.
The German Foreign Ministry said “diplomatic involvement” would continue even if sanctions were reimposed on Sunday.
Previously, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadefl had explained the possibility of an agreement with Iran “very slim” by the weekend, the German news agency DPA had even reported before Khamenei’s comments.
In a speech late Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Middle East could only be at peace if Iran’s nuclear program is “in full control again.”
“The next step ahead is decisive,” he said, adding that he is willing to meet with the Iranian president this week to secure a deal.
Iran stopped inspectors and refused to talk to us.
In the midst of a gust of diplomatic involvement, Araguchi also met with New York’s IAEA Director, Rafael Grossi.
Earlier this month, the United Nations Nuclear Watch Agency and Iran signed an Egyptian-mediated agreement to open ways to resume cooperation, including how to resume testing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. However, the agreement has not yet been fully established.
In July, Pezeschkian signed a law adopted by his country’s parliament, which halted all cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog. It followed a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, during which Israel and the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear sites.
France, Germany and the UK have begun the process Re-imulating sanctions against Iran End of August.
The process, called “snapback” by diplomats who negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran’s world power in 2015, is designed to protect the veto power at the United Nations. A 30-day clock has begun to reopen sanctions unless the West and Iran reach a diplomatic agreement.
European countries say they are willing to extend the deadline if Iran resumes direct negotiations with the US over its nuclear program, allowing UN nuclear inspectors to access nuclear sites and explains the highly abundant uranium that the UN clock says is 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of uranium. Iran is the only country in the world to enrich up to 60%, a short technical step from weapons grade levels.
If no diplomatic contracts are found this week, sanctions will automatically be “snapback” on Sunday. It will again freeze Iran’s assets overseas, with the halt weapons dealing with Tehran, bringing the development of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, among other measures, and further squeezing the country’s involvement economy.
Khamenei pointed out in his roughly 30-minute speech, saying that his comments focused only on America, not Europe.
Iran claims its atomic program is peaceful
Iran has long argued that its programme is peaceful, but the Western countries and the IAEA have rated Tehran that it had an active nuclear weapons programme until 2003. Khamenei has once again pledged that Iran will not seek an atomic bomb.
“We don’t have nuclear bombs, so we don’t have nuclear bombs. We don’t intend to use nuclear weapons,” he said.
US President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdraws the US from Iran’s nuclear deal in 2018, insisted on referring to Tehran in his pre-UN speech on Tuesday. He said he wrote to Khamenei in search of a meeting. We and Iranian negotiators met five times before the 12-day war in June.
“Today, our planet has no more serious risk than the most powerful and destructive weapons ever devised by humans. “I have made these threats a top priority, starting with the Iranian state.”
But Khamenei stressed that Israeli and the US attacks do not destroy the nuclear knowledge Iran has acquired over decades surrounding the crisis surrounding the programme.
“Science will not be demolished by threats and bombing,” he vowed.
___
Gambrel reported from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and Amiri. It was reported by the United Nations. Nasser Karimi, writer for the Associated Press in Tehran, Iran, contributed to the report.
– –
The Associated Press is Carnegie Corporation in New York and Autorider Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.
– –
Additional AP coverage for nuclear landscapes: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nucleul-landscape/
