ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A top aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that nuclear negotiations with the United States should be abandoned if they do not safeguard Iran’s interests.
“I express my opinion that the issue of negotiation or non-negotiation and these matters revolves around the national interests of the country. There is neither inherent goodness nor inherent ugliness. When you think that the interests of the country should be secured through negotiation, you should note that if the negotiation does not achieve its interests, there is no reason to continue it,” Ali Larijani said during an event at Shahed University, state media reported.
Tehran is currently engaged in new indirect talks with Washington about its nuclear program and sanctions relief. Both sides have said that the discussions are proceeding well, but a fourth round has been postponed.
Larijani noted the challenges the country faces under harsh sanctions and accused the US of politicizing the issue.
“It is not really a legal issue, because if it were, the IAEA should have given an opinion, there would be no reason for them to negotiate. The essence of this issue is political,” he said, referring to the global nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is monitoring Iran’s nuclear program.
The US on Wednesday announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil trade. On Thursday US President Donald Trump called for a global boycott of all Iranian oil and petrochemical products, writing on Truth Social that “all purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW!”, as reported by AFP.
Iran on Friday condemned the new sanctions.
Larijani accused the US of bullying.
“Today's world is bully-like. They say force. Iran says I need nuclear knowledge and I accept and abide by the accepted frameworks. But they say that is not our opinion and they say force,” he said.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a phone call on Friday that contradictory statements and actions by US officials, coupled with sanctions and threats, have deepened Iran’s distrust in Washington’s commitment to diplomacy, the ministry said in a statement.
Araghchi said Iran remains committed to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, “while insisting on its right to possess nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful and it does not seek a bomb, though Larijani in early April warned that Tehran will have “no choice” but to develop nuclear weapons if it comes under “any attack” by the US or Israel, signalling a potential shift under Khamenei, who has long opposed atomic weapons on a religious basis.