Tehran (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Tehran is resisting against U.S. demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear programme or be attacked, cautioning neighbours that host U.S. military bases that they could be in the sights if they take part, a senior Iranian official said, Reuters reported.
US President Donald Trump had asked last month for Iran to conduct talks on its nuclear programme with the US, but threatened to strike Iran if diplomacy did not succeed. On Thursday, the US president expressed he would prefer to hold “direct talks” with Iran. “I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries,” he asserted.
Although Iran has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for direct talks, it wants to continue indirect negotiations through Oman, a longtime channel for messages between the rival states, said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Why does Iran prefer indirect negotiations over direct talks?
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said,
“Direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials”.
“We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations,”
He added, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Iran keeps itself prepared for all possible or probable events, and just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiations, it will also be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty,”
Araghchi stated.
What message did Iran send to US-aligned Gulf states?
On the other hand, Iran has sent notifications to Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey and Bahrain that any backing for a U.S. attack on Iran, including the usage of their air space or territory by U.S. military during an invasion, would be regarded an act of hostility, the official expressed.
Such an act
“will have severe consequences for them.”
The official stated that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered Iran’s armed forces to be on high alert.
Moreover, Hossein Salami, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, expressed that the country was “ready” for war.
“We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,”
the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying.
