Tehran, June 20 (EFE).- The Iranian government announced Friday that it has rejected a US request to continue negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program following a week of Israeli strikes against its territory.
“The Americans have asked for negotiations, and our answer is no,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian television.
The United States and Iran had planned to hold a new round of negotiations this week with Oman as mediator, but after the start of Israeli strikes on June 13, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi confirmed that the talks had been canceled.
Iran and the US began talks on Apr. 12 to try to find a mutually satisfactory solution regarding the Iranian nuclear program.
Since then, five rounds of indirect negotiations, brokered by Oman and held in Muscat and Rome, have taken place amid significant disagreements over Iran’s uranium enrichment, which Washington wants to halt.
The talks were held in parallel with Iran’s contacts with the E3 (Germany, France, and the United Kingdom), which Iran has already announced it is continuing and plans to hold a new round in Geneva on Friday, a meeting in which the EU will also participate.
These negotiations were halted after the IAEA approved, on Mar. 12, a resolution presented by the E3 and the US and supported by 19 countries, in which it considered Iran’s lack of cooperation “a breach of its obligations” to the agency, thereby implying the possibility of Iran being reported to the UN Security Council.
The text urged Iran to take all necessary steps to address concerns about the accuracy and completeness of its declarations regarding its nuclear activities, allowing the Director General to provide the necessary assurances.
The Iranian government reacted harshly to the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, accusing him of placing the IAEA at the service of countries outside the non-proliferation treaty. EFE
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