Iran is ready to accept certain restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, but ending uranium enrichment is not negotiable, the country’s deputy foreign minister said.
“We can agree to have limits on our nuclear program and in return the sanctions must be lifted,” Majid Takht-e Ravanchi told Kyodo News in an interview on Saturday.
“Iran can be flexible on the capacities and limits of enrichment, but cannot agree to stop enrichment under any circumstance because it's essential, and we need to rely on ourselves, not on empty promises,” he added.
Takht-e Ravanchi said one obstacle to renewed talks with Washington was the need for clarity over past US actions.
“The United States should explain to us about the reasons it resorted to the use of force against us. If we want to have a genuine dialogue, everybody has to be transparent. The United States in fact tricked us. They pretended that they wanted to talk, but they decided to go for the military option.”
He said Tehran remained open to discussions but would not set a timeline. “Iran remains prepared to engage in dialogue, but we cannot put an exact time on the dialogue.”
“There have been messages going back and forth between Iran and the United States through intermediaries,” he said.
Iran and the US held five rounds of talks between April and May this year in Muscat, Oman, and Rome, Italy. A sixth round was scheduled to take place in Muscat on June 15, but was indefinitely suspended after Israel launched airstrikes on Iran two days earlier.
The ensuing 12-day conflict in June included US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, and Israeli strikes that destroyed critical infrastructure, killing several senior military and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians. Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 32 Israelis.
“We will in no way accept any border blockade with Armenia,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. “The claim of a 99-year lease to the US has no basis and is fabricated news.”
Armenia’s deputy foreign minister will visit Tehran on Tuesday, while President Masoud Pezeshkian and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are scheduled to hold a phone call later on Monday, Baghaei added during his weekly briefing.
The announcement follows a US-brokered peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan signed Friday at the White House. The agreement grants Washington rights to develop the route—renamed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity”—linking mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave through southern Armenia.
Tehran has repeatedly warned against foreign control over the corridor, which bypasses both Iran and Russia.
IAEA's technical visit to Tehran
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began talks in Tehran on Monday, including meetings at the foreign ministry, Baghaei confirmed, saying that discussions were “technical and complex” but declined to predict the outcome.
“In the history of the agency’s work, we have never seen a peaceful nuclear facility under 24-hour monitoring attacked, without the IAEA condemning it,” he said, adding that the consultations would focus on future cooperation in light of recent events and parliamentary resolutions.
In late June, Iran’s parliament approved a bill to suspend the country’s cooperation with the IAEA, a day after a ceasefire with Israel following 12 days of deadly war.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the UN’s nuclear watchdog has warned that the levels of uranium enrichment Tehran is pursuing have no civilian justification.
Talks with US and EU
The spokesman denied reports that Norway would host the next round of talks between Iran and the United States.
Iran and the US held five rounds of talks between April and May this year in Muscat, Oman, and Rome, Italy. A sixth round was scheduled to take place in Muscat on June 15, but was indefinitely suspended after Israel launched airstrikes on Iran two days earlier.
The ensuing 12-day conflict in June included US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, and Israeli strikes that destroyed critical infrastructure, killing several senior military and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians. Iran responded with missile strikes that killed 32 Israelis.
Talks with E3
On negotiations with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Baghaei said discussions had not stopped.
“At the Istanbul meeting about two weeks ago, both sides agreed to continue talks, but no time or venue has been decided,” he added.
France, Britain, and Germany have said they will activate the United Nations snapback mechanism against Iran by the end of August if no tangible progress is made on a nuclear deal.
The snapback mechanism is part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. It allows any participant in the nuclear agreement to reimpose sanctions if Iran is deemed non-compliant. If no resolution to maintain sanctions relief is passed within 30 days, all previous UN measures return automatically.
Lebanon and regional diplomacy
On Lebanon, Baghaei said Tehran recognizes the country’s inherent right to defend itself against Israel.
“Exercising this right without weapons is impossible. The decision on this rests with Lebanon,” he said.
Lebanon's cabinet instructed the army last week to develop a plan by the end of the year aimed at creating a state monopoly on weapons—an implicit challenge to Hezbollah, which has resisted disarmament since last year’s conflict with Israel.
Hezbollah decried the move as a "grave sin" and vowed to ignore it.
Baghaei said the newly appointed Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani’s visits to Iraq and Lebanon were part of Iran’s neighborhood policy, aimed at finalizing security agreements and advancing regional peace.
In Beirut, Larijani is expected to meet senior officials for talks on stability in West Asia, he added.
“Living next to an occupying entity that knows no limits in committing crimes is difficult. Our position in supporting Lebanon’s sovereignty has always been clear,” Baghaei said.
Senior Iranian officials, including Velayati and military commander Iraj Masjedi, have publicly opposed the move, describing it as an American- and Israeli-driven policy that will fail.
The Lebanese foreign ministry in a statement on X condemned the remarks as "a flagrant and unacceptable interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs."
