US not offering Iran ‘anything’: Trump
US President Donald Trump said yesterday he was not speaking to Iran and was not offering the country “anything”, and he reiterated his assertion that the United States had “totally OBLITERATED” Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
Trump’s comments, posted to Truth Social, followed reports that his administration had discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30bn to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear programme.
The statement comes as Iran’s deputy foreign minister told the BBC that talks between Washington and Tehran cannot resume unless the US rules out further strikes on Iran.
Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the British broadcaster that the US had signalled it wants to return to the negotiating table, a week after it struck three Iranian nuclear facilities.
“We have not agreed to any date, we have not agreed to the modality,” said Takht-Ravanchi. “Right now we are seeking an answer to this question. Are we going to see a repetition of an act of aggression while we are engaging in dialogue?”
The US needs to be “quite clear on this very important question”, he said.
Iran also criticised Trump’s shifting stance on whether to lift economic sanctions against Tehran as “games” that were not aimed at solving the problems between the two countries.
“These [statements by Trump] should be viewed more in the context of psychological and media games than as a serious expression in favour of dialogue or problem-solving,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference yesterday.
Baghaei also said Iran could not be expected to guarantee the safety of IAEA inspectors. “How can they expect us to ensure the safety and security of the agency’s inspectors when Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities were attacked a few days ago?” he said.
France, Germany and Britain, however, condemned “threats” against the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, reports Reuters.
“France, Germany and the United Kingdom condemn threats against the Director General of the IAEA Rafael Grossi and reiterate our full support to the Agency and the DG in carrying out their mandate,” said a joint statement issued by the foreign affairs ministries of those three countries.
At least 935 people were killed in Iran during its 12-day war with Israel, Iranian state media reported yesterday.
In a separate development, Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said on Sunday that the Islamic republic’s nuclear enrichment “will never stop” because it is permitted for “peaceful energy” purposes under the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“The enrichment is our right, an inalienable right, and we want to implement this right,” Iravani told CBS News.
The Iranian UN envoy also denied that there are any threats from his government to the safety of Rafael Grossi or against the agency’s inspectors, who are accused by some Iranian officials of helping Israel justify its attacks.
LondonGBDESK//
Comments are closed.