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Iran Says It Is Open to Talks but Rejects Pressure as US, EU Impose Sanctions

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi talks to journalists after meeting senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France in a hotel in Vienna, Austria, October 19, 2015. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi talks to journalists after meeting senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France in a hotel in Vienna, Austria, October 19, 2015. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Iran Says It Is Open to Talks but Rejects Pressure as US, EU Impose Sanctions

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi talks to journalists after meeting senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France in a hotel in Vienna, Austria, October 19, 2015. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi talks to journalists after meeting senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France in a hotel in Vienna, Austria, October 19, 2015. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Iran's foreign minister said that Tehran was open to diplomacy to solve disputes but not "threats and pressure", state media reported on Saturday, after the US and three European powers imposed sanctions against the country's aviation sector.

Abbas Araqchi's comments come a day after The European Union's chief diplomat said the bloc is considering new sanctions targeting Iran's aviation sector, in reaction to reports Tehran supplied Russia with ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine, Reuters reported.

"Iran continues on its own path with strength, although we have always been open to talks to resolve disputes ... but dialogue should be based on mutual respect, not on threats and pressure," Araqchi said, according to the official news agency IRNA.

Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran had not delivered any ballistic missiles to Russia and sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and three European powers would not solve any problems between them.

The United States, Germany, Britain and France on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on Iran, including measures against its national airline Iran Air.

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Medvedev Threatens to Turn Kyiv Into 'Giant Melted Spot'

Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev. EPA
Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev. EPA
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Medvedev Threatens to Turn Kyiv Into 'Giant Melted Spot'

Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev. EPA
Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev. EPA

Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday Russia could destroy Ukraine's capital Kyiv with non-nuclear weapons in response to the use of Western long-range missiles by Ukraine.

Medvedev said Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region, but could instead use some of its new weapon technologies to reduce Kyiv to "a giant melted spot" when its patience runs out.

"Holy shit! It's impossible, but it happened," he wrote in English on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Friday that his plan to achieve victory depended on Washington's decision, a clear reference to the authorization for long-range strikes that Kyiv has long sought from NATO allies.

Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskiy's office, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday: "Strong decisions are needed. Terror can be stopped by destroying the military facilities where it originates."

Kyiv has said such strikes are critical for its efforts to restrict Moscow's ability to attack Ukraine, but allies have so far been reluctant to permit them, citing fears Moscow will treat them as an escalation and doubting their efficiency.