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Khamenei Aide: Iran Ready for Indirect Talks with US

A handout picture made available by Iran's Supreme Leader Office shows Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during his annual Nowruz (Persian new year) speech in Tehran, Iran, 21 March 2025. EPA/IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER OFFICE
A handout picture made available by Iran's Supreme Leader Office shows Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during his annual Nowruz (Persian new year) speech in Tehran, Iran, 21 March 2025. EPA/IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER OFFICE
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Khamenei Aide: Iran Ready for Indirect Talks with US

A handout picture made available by Iran's Supreme Leader Office shows Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during his annual Nowruz (Persian new year) speech in Tehran, Iran, 21 March 2025. EPA/IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER OFFICE
A handout picture made available by Iran's Supreme Leader Office shows Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during his annual Nowruz (Persian new year) speech in Tehran, Iran, 21 March 2025. EPA/IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER OFFICE

Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said on Thursday Tehran has not closed all doors to resolve its disputes with the United States and is ready for indirect negotiations with Washington.
Tehran has so far rebuffed US President Donald Trump's warning it to make a deal or face military consequences. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called the message deceptive and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said talks are impossible unless Washington changes its "maximum pressure" policy.
"The Islamic Republic has not closed all doors. It is ready for indirect negotiations with the United States in order to evaluate the other party, state its own conditions and make the appropriate decision," Kharrazi said, according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency.
Iran is meant to soon reply to Trump's letter, with Araqchi saying last week that Tehran would take into consideration both Trump's threat and opportunities in its response, Reuters reported.
In his first 2017-21 term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that placed strict limits on Tehran's disputed nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
After Trump pulled out in 2018 and reimposed sweeping US sanctions, Tehran breached and has since far surpassed those limits in its escalating program of uranium enrichment.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.

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Huge Dust Storm Sweeps Into Iran, Affecting Millions

Vehicles drive past an anti-Israel banner showing numerous locations in Israel as a Yemeni dagger (jambiya) with writing in Farsi reading: "All targets are within range, Yemeni missiles for now!", and in Hebrew "All targets are within reach, we will choose", at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive past an anti-Israel banner showing numerous locations in Israel as a Yemeni dagger (jambiya) with writing in Farsi reading: "All targets are within range, Yemeni missiles for now!", and in Hebrew "All targets are within reach, we will choose", at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Huge Dust Storm Sweeps Into Iran, Affecting Millions

Vehicles drive past an anti-Israel banner showing numerous locations in Israel as a Yemeni dagger (jambiya) with writing in Farsi reading: "All targets are within range, Yemeni missiles for now!", and in Hebrew "All targets are within reach, we will choose", at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive past an anti-Israel banner showing numerous locations in Israel as a Yemeni dagger (jambiya) with writing in Farsi reading: "All targets are within range, Yemeni missiles for now!", and in Hebrew "All targets are within reach, we will choose", at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian authorities ordered schools and offices closed in seven western provinces Tuesday as a dust storm swept in from neighboring Iraq, with around 13 million people told to stay indoors.

Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Ilam and Kurdistan provinces were all affected, and state television cited local officials as blaming the closures on high levels of accumulated dust, AFP reported.

Government and private offices also shut in several provinces including Kermanshah and Ilam, as well as Khuzestan in the southwest.

Zanjan in the northeast and Bushehr in the south were also hit.

Bushehr, nearly 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) south of Tehran, was given an Air Quality Index of 108 on Tuesday, rated "poor for sensitive groups".

That figure is more than four times higher than the concentration of air microparticles deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization.

Iran's meteorological authorities said the conditions were caused by "the movement of a large mass of dust from Iraq towards western Iran".

State television reported low visibility in some areas and urged residents to remain inside and to wear face masks if they had to go out.

Last month, a similar dust storm in Iraq grounded flights and sent thousands of people to hospital with breathing problems.

On Monday, Iran's IRNA state news agency reported that more than 240 people in Khuzestan province had been treated for respiratory issues because of the dust.