US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran’s recent posture in nuclear negotiations has grown “much more aggressive,” just days before the sixth round of indirect talks is set to take place on Sunday in Muscat, Oman.
While Trump said the next round of talks would take place on Thursday, a senior Iranian official and a US official said Thursday was unlikely.
Iran and the US have already held five rounds of talks mediated by Oman. And while Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran and Washington will hold the newest round of talks in Muscat next Sunday, Iran’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, will be attending the annual Oslo Forum in Norway on Thursday, his office said.
“The US proposal is not acceptable to us. It was not the result of previous rounds of negotiations. We will present our own proposal to the other side via Oman after it is finalized. This proposal is reasonable, logical, and balanced,” Baghaei said.
“We must ensure before the lifting of sanctions that Iran will effectively benefit economically and that its banking and trade relations with other countries will return to normal,” he added.
Trump said that the next round of talks could make it clear if a nuclear deal is possible to avoid military action.
He told reporters at the White House on Monday that Iran appeared to have rejected a key element of an American proposal aimed at breaking the deadlock in the negotiations over the future of the country’s nuclear program.
“They’re just asking for things that you can’t do,” Trump said at the end of an economic event with business and Wall Street leaders. “They don’t want to give up what they have to give up. You know what that is: They seek enrichment.”
Trump also told reporters: “We can’t have enrichment. We want just the opposite, and so far, they’re not there. I hate to say that, because the alternative is a very, very dire one.”
At the same White House event, Trump said he had a telephone conversation on Monday evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
One day prior to his phone call with the Israeli PM, Trump and his entire top foreign policy team huddled in Camp David for hours on Sunday to discuss US strategy on the Iran nuclear crisis and the war in Gaza, two US officials and another source with knowledge told Axios.
A senior US official told Axios the president sees both crises as intertwined and part of a broader regional reality he is trying to shape.
Tehran has defended its right to enrich uranium as “non-negotiable,” while Washington called any Iranian enrichment a “red line.”
Meanwhile, Washington's ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, told Bloomberg on Tuesday that Trump will not allow Iran to enrich uranium. Huckabee said “there’s nothing’s off the table,” when asked whether military action was on the table if negotiations failed.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated criticism of a plan by European powers (France, Germany, the UK) and the US to adopt a resolution at the IAEA meeting that would accuse Tehran of non-compliance with nuclear obligations.
“Any ill-considered and destructive decision in the Board of Governors against Iran will be met with an appropriate response,” Araghchi said during a phone call with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry then said Iwaya and Araghchi had a candid exchange of views on Iran’s nuclear issue.
“Iwaya emphasized that Japan strongly hopes for a peaceful resolution of the issue and that Iran should not miss the opportunity for an agreement between the United States and Iran,” the Ministry statement said.
In Tehran, Iranian lawmakers said in a statement on Tuesday that the United States and Israel are seeking to turn nuclear talks into a “strategic trap” for Iran.
“The US is not serious in negotiations at all. It has set the goal of talks as imposing its demands and has adopted offensive positions that are diametrically opposed to Iranians' inalienable rights,” the statement from parliamentarians said.
“The only acceptable deal is one that permanently lifts all sanctions with the aim of achieving economic benefits for Iran,” lawmakers added in their statement.
