Iran rules out direct talks with US while Trump exerts ‘maximum pressure’

Iran’s foreign minister made the announcement after meeting his Russian counterpart.

Iran will not engage in direct talks with the United States on his country’s nuclear programme amid US President Donald Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” against it, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

His remarks came a day after the US imposed a fresh round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, the Iran’s main source of income.

“Iran’s position regarding nuclear talks is clear and we will not negotiate under pressure and sanctions,” Aragchi said during a televised joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Tehran on Tuesday.

“There is no possibility of direct negotiations with the US as long as maximum pressure is being applied in this way.”

Following his return to the White House last month, Trump has restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive the country’s oil exports to zero, reimposing a tough policy on Iran that was practiced throughout his first term.

Earlier this month, Iran’s top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said that talks with the US were “not smart, wise, or honourable”.

However, he stopped short of renewing a ban on direct talks with Washington decreed during the first Trump administration.

In 2018, during his first term, Trump withdrew the US from Iran’s landmark 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers that had imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Iran has since breached some of the deal’s limitations and efforts to revive the accord failed under the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

On Monday, Iran held a new round of talks with Germany, France and Britain about its nuclear programme after reviving engagement with the trio, known as the E3, late last year.

Araghchi said he had briefed Lavrov about the latest discussions.

“On the nuclear issue, we will move forward with the cooperation and coordination of our friends in Russia and China,” he added.

The Russian foreign minister said he was sure that diplomatic measures were still on the table when it came to resolving issues around Iran’s nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.

With Russia too facing sanctions over its war in Ukraine, Moscow and Tehran have stepped up their relations in recent years. Both countries had invested in Syria and suffered a setback in December with the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally.

Araghchi said Iran and Russia’s positions on Syria remain “very close”.

“Iran wants peace, stability, preservation of territorial integrity and unity, and the progress of Syria based on the will of the people,” he said.

Lavrov, for his part, said “We will do our utmost to ensure that the situation calms down and does not pose a threat either to the Syrian people… or to the people of neighbouring states.”

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, said that the foreign ministers were trying to portray “a picture of a coordinated, collaborated and consistent position” on regional and bilateral issues.

“Also there was a focus on the necessity of expanding the ties economically and politically as well as some measures to be taken with sanctions,” he said.

Lavrov’s visit to Iran also comes just days after US and Russian officials held direct talks for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The Russian foreign minister hailed Trump’s “balanced” position on the war in Ukraine after Washington voted with Moscow on United Nations resolutions to avoid condemning the Russian invasion on Monday.

“Yesterday’s event at the UN General Assembly and the Security Council showed one very important thing: the understanding that the approach aimed at eliminating the root causes of the crisis has no alternative,” Lavrov said.