Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran is not engaged in ongoing negotiations with the US. He confirmed that Tehran has received messages from Washington.
“I receive messages from [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations,” Araghchi told Al Jazeera in an interview on Tuesday. “There is no truth to the claim of negotiations with any party in Iran. All messages are conveyed through the Foreign Ministry or received by it, and there are communications between security agencies.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the US and Iran are in ongoing negotiations. He said earlier this week that Tehran had accepted most of his demands, and Washington was planning to issue Tehran additional conditions to end the conflict.
Trump has also threatened to escalate the conflict and bomb Iranian civilian infrastructure if Tehran does not agree to his demands.
Several Iranian officials say Tehran is uninterested in ending the war or talks with the US. Iran has issued a list of demands for ending the conflict, including the US removing bases from the region, war reparations, and continued control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Top Iranian officials have argued that talks with Washington are pointless because the US and Israel have attacked Iran during negotiations twice in the past year. “We do not have any faith that negotiations with the US will yield any results. The trust level is at zero”, Araghchi told Al Jazeera. “We don’t see honesty.”
