DUBAI, March 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s letter to Iran’s clerical establishment “will soon be delivered to Tehran by an Arab country,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in televised remarks on Wednesday.
Ali Khamenei said last week that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, after Trump said he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal.
Trump exited a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018 by re-imposing sanctions on Tehran, which retaliated by moving away from its nuclear-related commitments a year later.
Reacting to Wednesday’s closed doors UN Security Council meeting over Iran’s nuclear programme, Araqchi said the gathering was a “new and bizarre process that puts into question the goodwill of states requesting it”.
The meeting was requested by six of the council’s 15 members – France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain and the U.S., over Iran’s expansion of its stock of close to weapons-grade uranium.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned.
UN Security Council to Meet Over Iran’s Growing Stockpile of Near-Bomb-Grade Uranium
Talks between Tehran and the remaining members of the 2015 nuclear pact have gained momentum as Iran’s nuclear programme remains an important global issue.
Araqchi said that Iran would soon have a fifth round of talks with the European powers forming part of the nuclear deal – France, Britain and Germany – and confirmed a meeting in Beijing on Friday with the other members, Russia and China.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Sharon Singleton)
