Iran is not planning any immediate talks with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, rejecting recent assertions by US President Donald Trump that a meeting was to take place next week.
In a live interview on state television, Araqchi said that Tehran continues to weigh whether future talks with Washington would be in its national interests. This directly contradicts Trump’s previous statements implying that talks between the two countries were near.
Araqchi referred to five failed rounds of talks before, which he accused were brought down by concerted US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear program. While Washington and Tel Aviv defended the raids as necessary to prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, Tehran asserts that its nuclear program continues to be for civilian use only.
The destruction to our nuclear facilities was not insignificant,” Araqchi explained, and Iran officials are still determining the full scope of the damage. Those conclusions, he said, will inform Iran’s diplomatic stance in the future.
The foreign minister’s remark marks a respite in diplomacy, as Tehran retools its approach in light of what it perceives to be acts of aggression by America and its allies.