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[🇮🇷] Iran & the USA Relationship

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[🇮🇷] Iran & the USA Relationship
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No nuclear deal if deprived of peaceful activities: Iran
Agence France-Presse . Cairo 02 June, 2025, 22:20

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Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty meets with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Cairo on June 2, 2025. | AFP photo

Iran said Monday it will not accept a nuclear agreement that deprives it of what it calls ‘peaceful activities’, a reference to uranium enrichment, as it pressed the United States for guarantees it will drop sanctions.

Uranium enrichment has remained a key point of contention between the foes, in talks to seal a nuclear deal since April, with Iran defending what it says is its pursuit of a civil nuclear programme but with the US side calling it a ‘red line’.

Speaking in Cairo, where he met the UN nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said: ‘If the goal is to deprive Iran of its peaceful activities, then certainly no agreement will be reached.’

Araghchi insisted that Iran has ‘nothing to hide’ on its nuclear programme.

‘Iran has a peaceful nuclear programme we are prepared to provide this assurance to any party or entity,’ he said.

The remarks came after Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday called for more transparency from Iran following a leaked report that showed Tehran had stepped up uranium enrichment.

The IAEA report showed that Iran has stepped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent — close to the roughly 90 per cent level needed for atomic weapons.

‘There is a need for more transparency — this is very, very clear — in Iran, and nothing will bring us to this confidence besides full explanations of a number of activities,’ Grossi said ahead of meeting Araghchi.

Grossi added that some of the report’s findings ‘may be uncomfortable for some, and we are used to being criticised’.

Iran has rejected the report, warning it would retaliate if European powers that have threatened to reimpose nuclear sanctions ‘exploit’ it.

‘Some countries are trying to abuse this agency to pave the way for escalation with Iran. I hope that this agency does not fall into this trap,’ Araghchi said of the IAEA.

Iran meanwhile pushed for the United States to drop sanctions that have crippled its economy as a condition for a nuclear agreement with president Donald Trump’s administration.

Araghchi said on Saturday that he had received ‘elements’ of a US proposal for a nuclear deal following five rounds of talks mediated by Oman.

On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a news conference: ‘We want to guarantee that the sanctions are effectively lifted.’

‘So far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue,’ he said.

The US envoy in the nuclear talks said last month that Trump’s administration would oppose any Iranian enrichment.

‘An enrichment programme can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,’ Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News.

Iran has vowed to keep enriching uranium ‘with or without a deal’ on its nuclear programme.

The United States has sent Iran a proposal for a nuclear deal that the White House called ‘acceptable’ and in Tehran’s ‘best interest’ to accept, US media reported on Saturday.

The New York Times, citing officials familiar with the diplomatic exchanges, said the proposal calls on Iran to stop all enrichment and suggests creating a regional grouping to produce nuclear power.

Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new agreement to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.​
 

US nuclear proposal against national interest: Khamenei
Agence France-Presse Tehran 05 June, 2025, 04:10

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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

IRAN'S supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday a US proposal for a nuclear agreement was against the national interest, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.

The long-time foes have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that US president Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.

On Saturday, Iran said it had received 'elements' of the US proposal through Omani mediators, the de- tails of which have not been publicly disclosed.

The proposal presented by the Americans is 100 per cent against' notions of independence and self-reliance, Khamenei said in a televised speech, invoking ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Independence means not waiting for the green light from America and the likes of America."

Iran's enrichment of uranium has emerged as a ma- jor point of contention.

Trump said on Monday his administration would not allow 'any' enrichment, despite Tehran's insistence it is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Khamenei said enrich- ment is 'key' to Iran's nuclear programme and that the United States 'cannot have a say' on the issue.

'If we have 100 nuclear power plants but don't have enrichment, they will be of no use to us, because 'nucle- ar power plants need fuel" to operate, he said.

'If we cannot produce this fuel domestically, we have to reach out to the United States, which may have dozens of conditions."​
 

Iran says no sanctions relief in US nuclear proposal
Agence France-Presse . Tehran, Iran 08 June, 2025, 22:27

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The national flag of Iran. | File photo

Iran’s parliament speaker said on Sunday that the latest US proposal for a nuclear deal does not include the lifting of sanctions, state media reported as negotiations appear to have hit a roadblock.

The two foes have held five rounds of Omani-mediated talks since April, seeking to replace a landmark agreement between Tehran and world powers that set restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, before US President Donald Trump abandoned the accord during his first term in 2018.

In a video aired on Iranian state TV, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that ‘the US plan does not even mention the lifting of sanctions’.

He called it a sign of dishonesty, accusing the Americans of seeking to impose a ‘unilateral’ agreement that Tehran would not accept.

‘The delusional US president should know better and change his approach if he is really looking for a deal,’ Ghalibaf said.

On May 31, after the fifth round of talks, Iran said it had received ‘elements’ of a US proposal, with officials later taking issue with ‘ambiguities’ in the draft text.

The US and its Western allies have long accused the Islamic republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a charge Iran has consistently denied, insisting that its atomic programme was solely for peaceful purposes.

Key issues in the negotiations have been the removal of biting economic sanctions and uranium enrichment.

Tehran says it has the right to enrich uranium under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while the Trump administration has called any Iranian enrichment a ‘red line’.

Trump, who has revived his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign of sanction on Iran since taking office in January, has repeatedly said it will not be allowed any uranium enrichment under a potential deal.

On Tuesday, Iran’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said the country ‘will not ask anyone for permission to continue enriching uranium’.

According to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state in the world that enriches uranium up to 60 percent -- still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected the latest US proposal and said enrichment was ‘key’ to Iran’s nuclear programme.

The IAEA Board of Governors is scheduled to meet in Vienna later this month and discuss Iran’s nuclear activities.​
 

Iran says to submit own nuclear proposal to US soon
Agence France-Presse . Tehran, Iran 09 June, 2025, 19:52

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The national flag of Iran. | File photo

Iran said on Monday that it would soon present a counter-proposal on a nuclear deal with the United States, after it had described Washington’s offer as containing ‘ambiguities’.

Tehran and Washington have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new nuclear accord to replace the deal with major powers that US President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.

The longtime foes have been locked in a diplomatic standoff over Iran’s uranium enrichment, with Tehran defending it as a ‘non-negotiable’ right and Washington describing it as a ‘red line’.

On May 31, after the fifth round talks, Iran said it had received ‘elements’ of a US proposal, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying later the text contained ‘ambiguities’.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei criticised the US proposal as ‘lacking elements’ reflective of the previous rounds of negotiations, without providing further details.

‘We will soon submit our own proposed plan to the other side through (mediator) Oman once it is finalised,’ Baqaei told a weekly press briefing.

‘It is a proposal that is reasonable, logical, and balanced, and we strongly recommend that the American side value this opportunity.’

Iran’s parliament speaker has said the US proposal failed to include the lifting of sanctions -- a key demand for Tehran, which has been reeling under their weight for years.

Trump, who has revived his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign of sanctions on Iran since taking office in January, has repeatedly said it will not be allowed any uranium enrichment under a potential deal.

On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US offer was ‘100 percent against’ notions of independence and self-reliance.

He insisted that uranium enrichment was ‘key’ to Iran’s nuclear programme and that the US ’cannot have a say’ on the issue.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal and close though still short of the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.

Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes

The United Nations nuclear watchdog will convene a Board of Governors meeting from June 9-13 in Vienna to discuss Iran’s nuclear activities.

The meeting comes after the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report criticising ‘less than satisfactory’ cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites.

Iran has criticised the IAEA report as unbalanced, saying it relied on ‘forged documents’ provided by its arch foe Israel.

Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries who were party to the 2015 deal, are currently weighing whether to trigger the sanctions ‘snapback’ mechanism in the accord.

The mechanism would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance -- an option that expires in October.

On Friday, Araghchi warned European powers against backing a draft resolution at the IAEA accusing Tehran of non-compliance, calling it a ‘strategic mistake’.

On Monday, Baqaei said Iran has ‘prepared and formulated a series of steps and measures’ if the resolution passed.

‘Without a doubt, the response to confrontation will not be more cooperation,’ he added.​
 

New round of US talks planned for Sunday: Iran
Agence France-Presse . Tehran 10 June, 2025, 22:25

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Iran said a new round of nuclear talks with the United States is planned for Sunday, after Washington submitted a proposal for a deal amid a standoff over uranium enrichment.

The longtime foes have held five rounds of talks since April, the highest level contact since president Donald Trump withdrew Washington from a 2015 nuclear accord during his first term.

‘The next round of Iran-US indirect talks is being planned for next Sunday in Muscat,’ Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement Tuesday.

Trump had earlier said the meeting with Iran was expected on Thursday but Baqaei noted that Iran’s foreign minister and chief negotiator Abbas Araghchi would be attending the Norway’s Oslo Forum, a gathering of conflict mediators.

The sixth round of talks will come around two weeks after Iran received a US proposal for nuclear deal which Araghchi described as containing ‘ambiguities’.

Iran said the US proposal failed to include ‘elements’ reflective of the previous negotiations including lifting of sanctions—a key demand for Tehran, which has been reeling under their weight for years.

Tehran said it would present a ‘reasonable, logical and balanced’ counter-proposal to the United States through mediator Oman.

On Monday, Trump said the upcoming US-Iran talks could clarify if a nuclear deal is possible to avoid military action.

Iran and the United States have been locked in a diplomatic standoff over Iran’s uranium enrichment, with Tehran defending it as a ‘non-negotiable’ right and Washington calling it as a ‘red line’.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67-per cent limit set in the 2015 deal and close though still short of the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear warhead.

Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

On Tuesday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi dismissed claims that there was a ‘deadlock’ in the talks with the US.

‘Any negotiations with an international dimension come with their own sensitivities and require a great deal of patience for them to reach a result,’ he told the official IRNA news agency.

‘What matters to us is that we can safeguard the national interests of the country through these talks, and that is how we proceed,’ he added.

He said that the sixth round will be the first in which the parties express their views on the exchanged written materials, noting that Tehran will again reiterate its position on enrichment capacity, as it has done publicly in the past.

On Monday, the United Nations nuclear watchdog began a Board of Governors meeting in Vienna that will last until Friday to discuss Iran’s nuclear activities among other topics.

The meeting came after the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report criticising ‘less than satisfactory’ cooperation from Tehran, particularly in explaining past cases of nuclear material found at undeclared sites.

Iran has criticised the IAEA report as unbalanced, saying it relied on ‘forged documents’ provided by its arch foe Israel.

On Tuesday, Araghchi reiterated criticism of a plan by European powers and the United States to adopt a resolution at the IAEA meeting, accusing Tehran of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations.

‘Any ill-considered and destructive decision in the Board of Governors against Iran will be met with an appropriate response,’ he said during a phone call with Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya.

Iran has said it would reduce cooperation with the IAEA if the resolution passed.​
 

Iran threatens to strike US bases in region if military conflict arises

REUTERS
Published :
Jun 11, 2025 17:41
Updated :
Jun 11, 2025 17:41

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Iran's Defense Minister, Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh during meet with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, at Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, Venezuela November 21, 2024. Photo : Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS/Files

If nuclear negotiations fail and conflict arises with the United States, Iran will strike American bases in the region, Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said on Wednesday, days ahead of a planned sixth round of Iran-US nuclear talks.

"Some officials on the other side threaten conflict if negotiations don't come to fruition. If a conflict is imposed on us ... all US bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries," Nasirzadeh said during a weekly press briefing.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with bombing if it does not reach a new nuclear deal.

The next round of talks is due this week, with Trump saying negotiations would be held on Thursday while Tehran says they will take place on Sunday in Oman.

Iran is expected to hand a counter-proposal to a previous US offer for a nuclear deal it rejected, with Trump saying on Tuesday that Iran was becoming "much more aggressive" in nuclear talks.

Tehran and Washington have clashed on the issue on uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, which Western powers say is a potential pathway to the development of nuclear weapons. Iran holds that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes.

"As we resume talks on Sunday, it is clear that an agreement that can ensure the continued peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program is within reach — and could be achieved rapidly," Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post on X on Wednesday.

Another sticking point in the talks has been Iran's missile programme. Ballistic missiles form an important part of Iran's arsenal.

Nasirzadeh said that Tehran recently tested a missile with a two-ton warhead and does not accept limitations.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said in February that Iran should further develop its military, including its missiles.​
 

NUCLEAR TALKS: Iran defies US on enrichment

Agence France-Presse . Tehran 12 June, 2025, 22:27

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Iran on Thursday vowed to significantly increase its output of enriched uranium in defiance of US demands ahead of a round of nuclear talks shrouded in trepidation amid reports of an imminent Israeli attack.

The announcement came after the UN nuclear watchdog accused Iran of non-compliance with its obligations, prompting Israel to say the world must respond ‘decisively’.

The United States, Israel and other Western countries have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an accusation Tehran has categorically denied.

Ahead of the sixth round of US-Iran talks in Oman on Sunday, Tehran threatened to strike US bases in the region if negotiations fail and conflict erupts.

Uranium enrichment has emerged as the key point of contention, with Iran defending it as a ‘non-negotiable’ right in its pursuit of a civilian nuclear programme, while the United States has called it a ‘red line’.

On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors adopted a resolution condemning Iran’s ‘non-compliance’ with its nuclear obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, carried by 19 votes in favour, out of 35 in total, diplomats said.

The resolution could lay the groundwork for European countries to invoke the ‘snapback’ mechanism under the 2015 nuclear deal, reinstating UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance — an option that expires in October.

Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami on Thursday slammed the IAEA resolution as ‘extremist’, blaming it on Israeli influence.

He insisted that Iran has upheld it commitments to the International Atomic Energy Agency but rolled back adherence to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after president Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the accord during his first term in office.

‘They can’t expect us to fulfil them without them Western countries honouring any of their commitments,’ he told state TV.

‘The necessary orders have been issued by the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation to launch a new enrichment centre in a secure location,’ said a joint statement from the organisation and the foreign ministry.

Iran will also be ’replacing all of these first-generation machines with sixth-generation advanced machines’ at the Fordow uranium enrichment plant south of Tehran, the organisation’s spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

This means ‘our production of enriched material will increase significantly,’ he told state TV.

Eslami said that enrichment would begin at the new ‘invulnerable’ site ‘as soon as the machines are installed’.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal and close though still short of the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear warhead.

The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks since April to hammer out a new nuclear deal, replacing the 2015 accord.

Trump appeared to shift his previously optimistic tone this week, saying he was ‘less confident’ a deal could be reached.

On Wednesday, following Iran’s threat to hit US bases in case of war, ordered US personnel to be moved from the potentially ‘dangerous’ Middle East.

On Thursday, the US embassy in Jerusalem restricted staff movements over security concerns, citing ‘increased regional tensions’.

A US official had earlier said that staff levels at the embassy in Iraq were being reduced over security concerns.

Oman’s foreign minister Badr Albusaidi nonetheless confirmed in a post on X on Thursday that the ‘6th round of Iran US talks will be held in Muscat this Sunday’.

Israel has repeatedly warned that it could attack Iranian nuclear sites, vowing to stop its arch foe from acquiring an atomic bomb.

On Thursday, its foreign ministry said Iran’s ‘actions undermine the global non-proliferation regime and pose an imminent threat to regional and international security and stability’.

Reports in US media, including NBC and the New York Times, on Wednesday said Israel was considering taking military action against Iran, likely without US support.

Iran has vowed to respond to any attack.

‘All its (US) bases are within our reach, we have access to them, and without hesitation we will target all of them in the host countries,’ Iran’s defence minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said in response to US threats of military action if the talks fail.

‘God willing, things won’t reach that point, and the talks will succeed,’ the minister said, but added that Washington ‘will suffer more losses’ if conflict erupts.

Following Iran’s vow to increase enrichment, the European Union called on Tehran ‘to show restraint’, while France accused Tehran of a ‘deliberate’ escalation.

On Wednesday, Iran’s permanent UN representative Amir Saeid Iravani said Tehran would consider ‘proportionate responses’ if the snapback mechanism is triggered — including ‘starting the process of withdrawal’ from the NPT.​
 

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