Iran is ready to start a new round of nuclear negotiations, the country’s foreign minister has said.
In a social media post, FM Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is ready to open talks on Iran’s nuclear programme this week, should others prove willing. However, the recently appointed moderate acknowledged that heightened regional tensions make reviving the process a challenge.
“If the other parties are ready, we can restart the negotiations during this trip,” Araghchi said. Iran’s top diplomat is due in New York this week to attend the United Nations General Assembly, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday.
“I will stay in New York for more days after the return of the president and I will have more meetings with foreign ministers of different countries,” Araghchi said in a statement quoted by state-run IRNA news agency on Monday.
In July this year, the relatively moderate Pezeshkian won the presidential election. He has vowed to restart talks with Western powers in order to lift sanctions in search of easing economic pressure on Iran.
Tehran and world powers signed in 2015 a landmark nuclear deal – the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – designed to curb Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Three years later, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the accord, imposing fresh sanctions.
The makeup of the cabinet chosen by Pezeshkian signalled his desire to re-engage with the West. Both Araghchi and Deputy for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif are considered architects of the JCPOA.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who remains Iran’s ultimate decision-maker, told the government in April that there was “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy”.
However, rapprochement between Iran and the West is obstructed by the escalating tension in the region.
Iran is aligned with an array of regional players that are at odds with Israel and its key ally the United States, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen.
Tehran has also been strengthening its links with Russia. The US and European Union allies accuse it of supporting Moscow’s war on Ukraine by shipping drones and missiles.
Araghchi flatly rejected those claims earlier this month, calling them based on “faulty intelligence”.
In his remarks on Monday, the foreign minister acknowledged that this is not the time to resolve the hostility with the US, but he insisted that “its costs can be reduced”.
