Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran has agreed to enter into talks with the United States but does not want it under former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy. The lifting of sanctions requires negotiations, but not under the framework of “maximum pressure” because that would be surrender, not a negotiation.
This follows remarks from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the idea of negotiation with Washington was dismissed. In a speech delivered to air force officers in Tehran on Friday, Khamenei announced that negotiating with the US would neither be “wise nor honorable.” Still, he stopped short of clearly banning such talks.
Khamenei’s statement appears to contradict earlier signals from Tehran that it was open to talks on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. His comments also cast uncertainty over the reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian’s recent pledge to engage in dialogue with Western nations.
The immediate fallout of Khamenei’s speech was evident in Iran’s financial markets, with the rial plummeting to a record low of 872,000 rials per US dollar in aftermarket trading.
Khamenei referred to the 2018 withdrawal by Trump from the nuclear deal, asserting that Iran had fulfilled its commitments while the US had failed to uphold its promises. “The very person who is in office today tore up the agreement. This is an experience we must learn from,” he said.
Regardless of the rhetoric from leaders, Iran’s stance remains ambiguous. Tehran is stuck within and torn between two reformist factions-ones who support calls for détente with US administrations and other hard-liners in opposition to any engagement with the West. It’s uncertain where this leaves US-Iran talks concerning their futures.