‘US must rule out more strikes before new talks,' says Iran minister amid Israel-Iran ceasefire
The United States must eliminate any possibility of further strikes on Iran if it wants to resume diplomatic talks, Tehran's Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said amid a ceasefire in hostilities between Israel and Iran announced last week, which was brokered by US President Donald Trump and Qatar.
Ravanchi said that the Trump administration conveyed its message to Tehran via mediators that it wants to return to the negotiation table regarding Iran's nuclear program but had 'not made their position clear' on the 'very important question' as talks take place between the two countries, reported BBC.
In the last couple of months, the US and Iran have had at least five rounds of mainly indirect talks regarding the Islamic Republic's nuclear program and the sanctions imposed by Washington. The sixth round of talks were scheduled to take place on June 15 in Muscat but Israel launched its offensive against Tehran on June 13 and the plan for further talks were foiled.
The United States also got directly involved in the conflict between Tel Aviv and Tehran, when its 125 military aircrafts, including B-2 Stealth bombers dropped bombs and targeted three Iranian nuclear sites, namely Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. America codenamed the operation as 'Midnight Hammer'.
Ravanchi reiterated Iran's stance of allowing to enrich uranium as they are for 'peaceful purposes' and rejected the accusations of the West that Tehran was secretly developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran's deputy foreign minister said 'The level of that can be discussed, the capacity can be discussed, but to say that you should not have enrichment, you should have zero enrichment, and if you do not agree, we will bomb you, that is the law of the jungle,' BBC reported.
The extent of damage to Iran's nuclear program due to strikes by the US and Israel remains unclear and the minister refused to give an exact assessment of the situation.
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