Iran’s FM Araghchi rules out negotiations with US

KABUL (Pajhwok): Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has stated that talks with the United States may no longer be on the agenda following a US‑Israeli military operation against the Islamic Republic.

In an interview with PBS on Monday, Araghchi said he did not believe negotiations with the Americans “would be on our agenda anymore.”

He referred to last year’s negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, which preceded US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in June. At the time, former US President Donald Trump justified the attacks by claiming that Iran had “rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions.”

Araghchi noted that during the final round of nuclear talks in February, the Americans had assured Iran they had “no intention to attack,” but carried out strikes regardless.

Meanwhile, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was named as his successor on Sunday, more than a week after the elder Khamenei was killed in Israeli strikes.

Araghchi said it was “too soon” for Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to make a public statement in his new role, to comment on relations with the US.

“We are all waiting for his speeches and comments, which will come later,” he said. “But I do not think the question of talking or negotiating with the Americans will be on the table, given our bitter experience.”

At the same time, Trump described a potential war with Iran as a “short-term excursion,” claiming that such a conflict would end “very soon.”

hz/sa