Iran denied that nuclear talks with the US are scheduled to resume, diminishing prospects for diplomacy after US President Donald Trump suggested a deal could come as early as next week.
“I say explicitly that no agreement, arrangement or discussion has taken place regarding the initiation of new negotiations,” Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with state TV on Thursday. “Some of the speculation about the resumption of negotiations should not be taken seriously.”
Trump on Wednesday said that the two sides would talk next week and “may” sign an agreement. That would have been their first such meeting since the 12-day war between Iran and Israel — in which the US also intervened — derailed a diplomatic push to resolve tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Photo: Reuters
While some Iranian officials, including the president, have indicated a readiness for talks, they face resistance from others who are especially opposed to engagement in the wake of the conflict.
Araghchi also rebuffed a request by UN nuclear inspectors to assess the extent of the damage at nuclear facilities bombed by the US and Israel, which he described as “considerable and serious.”
Araghchi’s denial came as Iranian lawmakers passed a “binding” bill suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog and after Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Trump of exaggerating the impact of US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Khamenei rejected US claims that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by decades.
The strikes had done “nothing significant” to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, he said.
Trump had said key facilities, including the underground Fordo uranium enrichment site, had been “obliterated.”
Doubts remain about whether Iran quietly removed about 400kg of enriched uranium from its most sensitive sites before the strikes — potentially hiding nuclear material elsewhere in the country.
Trump on his Truth Social platform dismissed such speculation, saying: “Nothing was taken out... too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!”
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