REUTERS/KL: The Islamic Republic’s parliament said the country should not resume nuclear negotiations with the United States until preconditions are met, in a statement reported on Wednesday by Islamic Republic state media.
“When the U.S. use negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime (Israel), talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met,” the statement said.
The statement did not define the preconditions, but the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said there should be guarantees there will be no further attacks against Tehran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Says It Will Work with IAEA but Inspections May Be Risky
Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on the Iran’s nuclear facilities last month, saying that they were part of a program geared towards developing nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.
Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of indirect negotiations mediated by Oman prior to the 12-day air war, with U.S. demands that the Islamic Republic drop its domestic uranium enrichment program reaching a dead end.
Last week, Araqchi reiterated Tehran’s position that it would not agree to a nuclear deal that prevents it from enriching uranium and would refuse to discuss extra-nuclear topics such as its ballistic missile program.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was in no rush to negotiate with the Islamic Republic as its nuclear sites were now “obliterated”, but the U.S., in coordination with three European countries, has agreed to set the end of August as the deadline for a deal.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that Paris, London and Berlin would trigger the United Nations sanctions snapback mechanism, which would reimpose international sanctions on the Islamic Republic, by the end of August if there is no concrete progress regarding an agreement.
