Diplomatic talks with Washington cannot resume unless the US rules out new shocks in Iran, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Tahd-Rawanshi told the BBC today.
“We hear that Washington wants to talk to us,” the Iranian official said in an interview broadcast on the BBC last night.
“We have not agreed on a date. We have not agreed on the details,” he said. “We are seeking an answer to this question: will we see a resumption of aggressive action while we are in dialogue?”
The U.S. “has not yet clarified its position,” Tahd-Ravansy said.
Tehran has been told that the US does not want to “engage in regime change in Iran” by targeting the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian official also said.
Israel began hostilities on June 13 by bombing Iran and killing the country’s top military officers and nuclear scientists.
The US bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities on the night of 21-22 June in support of the attack launched by Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wants to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. An ambition denied by the Iranian regime, which in any case claims its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, specifically for power generation.
After 12 days of bombardment on both sides, a ceasefire came into effect on June 24, announced by US President Donald Trump. He warned that the Pentagon would “without a doubt” launch new strikes if Iran proceeds to enrich uranium to levels that would allow it to develop nuclear weapons.
Tahd-Rawanshi once again asserted Iran’s right to enrich uranium to 60 percent for energy production.
“The level can be debated, the capacity can be debated, but for someone to argue that you must…have zero enrichment, and that if you don’t agree, we will bomb you, that is the law of the jungle,” he said.
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