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Iranian FM: Certain Things Need to Change to Enable Talks with US

FILE PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks to the media in Beirut, Lebanon, October 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks to the media in Beirut, Lebanon, October 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
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Iranian FM: Certain Things Need to Change to Enable Talks with US

FILE PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks to the media in Beirut, Lebanon, October 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks to the media in Beirut, Lebanon, October 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

Talks with the United States are no longer possible unless certain things change, Iranian state media reported Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying on Sunday as Washington awaits a response to its invitation for talks on a new nuclear deal.
Tehran this month received a letter from US President Donald Trump giving Iran two months to decide whether it would enter new negotiations or face stricter sanctions under Trump's renewed "maximum pressure" campaign.
While Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected the offer for talks as deceptive, Iran's foreign minister said on Thursday that Tehran would soon reply to both the letter's threats and opportunities.
On Sunday Araqchi added that Iran was not opposed to talks out of "stubbornness", but rather as a result of history and experience, adding that Washington needs to recalibrate its policy before Tehran takes part in talks.
In his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers that had placed strict limits on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
After Trump pulled out in 2018 and restored sanctions, Iran breached and far surpassed those limits in the development of its nuclear program.
"In my opinion, the 2015 pact in its current form cannot be revived. It would not be in our interest because our nuclear situation has advanced significantly and we can no longer return to previous conditions," Reuters quoted Araqchi as saying.
"The same can be said of the other side's sanctions. The 2015 nuclear pact can still be a basis and model for negotiations."

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UN Body Warns over Trump's Deep-sea Mining Order

Global leaders and environmentalists are pushing back against US President Donald's Trump's order to fast-track deep-sea mining to protect the marine habitat and its residents, like this mother humpback whale and calf seen off the coast of Brazil. CARL DE SOUZA / AFP/File
Global leaders and environmentalists are pushing back against US President Donald's Trump's order to fast-track deep-sea mining to protect the marine habitat and its residents, like this mother humpback whale and calf seen off the coast of Brazil. CARL DE SOUZA / AFP/File
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UN Body Warns over Trump's Deep-sea Mining Order

Global leaders and environmentalists are pushing back against US President Donald's Trump's order to fast-track deep-sea mining to protect the marine habitat and its residents, like this mother humpback whale and calf seen off the coast of Brazil. CARL DE SOUZA / AFP/File
Global leaders and environmentalists are pushing back against US President Donald's Trump's order to fast-track deep-sea mining to protect the marine habitat and its residents, like this mother humpback whale and calf seen off the coast of Brazil. CARL DE SOUZA / AFP/File

The head of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) on Wednesday criticized US President Donald Trump's order to fast-track deep-sea mining in the open ocean outside American territorial waters.
"No state has the right to unilaterally exploit the mineral resources of the area outside the legal framework established by UNCLOS," ISA head Leticia Carvalho said in a statement, referring to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"It is common understanding that this prohibition is binding on all States, including those that have not ratified UNCLOS," she added.
The United States is not a signatory of the convention, which established the ISA in 1982 and says that international waters and its resources are "the common heritage of humankind."
The ISA is scrambling to devise a rulebook for deep-sea mining, balancing its economic potential against warnings of irreversible environmental damage.
Washington wants to spearhead mining for mineral-rich nodules in the deepest ocean floor, sidestepping a global effort to regulate such potentially damaging exploration.
The Trump administration appears to be relying on an obscure, decades-old law that allows the federal government to issue seabed mining permits in international waters -- a move that has sparked international outcry from Paris, Beijing, and beyond.
Carvalho said the decision by the Trump administration was "surprising" given that for more than three decades Washington was a "reliable observer and significant contributor" to ISA work, AFP reported.
She said "unilateral action... sets a dangerous precedent that could destabilize the entire system of global ocean governance," she added.
The ISA must both oversee any exploration or mining of coveted resources (such as cobalt, nickel or manganese) in international waters, and protect the marine environment, according to UNCLOS.
Carvalho added in her statement that the advantages of adhering to international norms "outweigh the potential risks and challenges associated with unilateral action across the chain, from intergovernmental relations to investment security."