Iran’s top diplomat said Thursday that peace talks involving the U.S. have been “more complicated and more difficult” after U.S. airstrikes over the weekend.
Days before the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, officials met in Geneva to discuss the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program.
But Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said hopes of returning to a multi-nation deal such as the one Trump removed the U.S. from in his first term are fading.
“No agreement has been made for resuming the negotiations,” he said in Thursday remarks broadcast by state TV. “No time has been set, no promise has been made, and we haven’t even talked about restarting the talks.”
Tehran has been hit by both U.S. and Israeli forces for refusing to disassemble its nuclear programs but the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said they won’t back down.
Iranian forces have fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel since the start of the 12-day war, hung multiple people being held on espionage charges and detained individuals in cities across the country for allegedly cooperating with Israel.
“The Iranian nation is victorious and will remain victorious by the grace of God,” Khamenei wrote in a Thursday post on X.
“The US President stated, ‘Iran must surrender.’ Needless to say, this statement is too big to come out of the US president’s mouth,” he added in an earlier post.
His comments came as CNN reported that the Trump administration was urging Arab Gulf partners to fund a $30 billion civilian nuclear program to help reengage Iran in peace talks.
“The U.S. is willing to lead these talks” with Iran, a Trump administration official told CNN. “And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear program to be built, but we will not make that commitment.”