Iran insists on indirect nuclear talks with US while warning it will respond to use of force

Iran is willing to hold indirect talks with the US on its nuclear programme but remains ready to respond to any use of force as threatened by US President Donald Trump, senior officials said at the weekend.

“We have declared our stance, we advocate for diplomacy and negotiations, but indirectly,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said while attending a meeting of the parliament's national security committee to brief them on the issue, state news agency Irna reported.

Mr Trump last month sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he called for Washington and Tehran to directly negotiate a deal that would ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons. Mr Trump reportedly set a two-month deadline for the talks to begin and threatened Iran with the use of force if it rejected the offer.

Mr Araghchi said on Sunday that “direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials”.

“We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations,” he added, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

“Iran keeps itself prepared for all possible or probable events, and, just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiations, it will also be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty,” he said.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that indirect negotiations with the US were likely to be hosted by Oman, which has served as an intermediary between the two sides before.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was willing to engage in dialogue with the US “on equal footing”. He also questioned Washington's sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying “If you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?”

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark deal with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the US, France, China, Russia, and the UK, as well as Germany, to regulate its nuclear activities. The agreement gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon.

The US withdrew from the agreement in 2018, during Mr Trump's first term in office, and reinstated sanctions on Iran. Mr Trump resumed his policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran after beginning his second term in January.

Iran responded by stepping up its nuclear enrichment in breach of the 2015 pact, and has now accumulated a stockpile of near weapons-grade material, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Speaking at a gathering of ambassadors on Sunday to celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian new year, Mr Araghchi denounced the US for its unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Having had that experience, we are now prepared for negotiations on our nuclear programme and the removal of sanctions on the basis of logic of trust-building in exchange for the lifting of the cruel sanctions against Iran,” the Tasnim news agency quoted him as saying.

On Saturday Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the country was “ready” for war.

“We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,” Irna reported him as saying.