Iran’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, March 26th that there are currently no talks between Iran and the United States. Speaking to Press TV, Abbas Araghchi stated that the exchange of messages does not signal negotiations between the two countries.
Tehran has no intention of having talks with the U.S. after reviewing its latest proposal, he added Araghchi also asserted that Iran “is not seeking war and wants a permanent end to the conflict.”
Earlier, a semi-official Iranian source said that Tehran’s response to the U.S. plan was not positive and that the country
will end the war only at a time of its own choosing and if its conditions are met.
The plan reportedly includes demands for Iran to dismantle nuclear facilities, limit its missile program, and cease funding regional proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.
President Donald Trump commented on Wednesday that Iranian negotiators fear being “killed by their own people.” He told a dinner for Republican members of Congress:
They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly. But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, warned Tehran that “President Trump is not bluffing, and he is ready to unleash hell,” adding:
If Iran does not accept the reality of the current situation, if it does not understand that it has been defeated militarily and will continue to be so, President Trump will ensure that he is hit harder than ever before.
Meanwhile, the semi-official IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency reported that Iran is focused on the strategic chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, stating it is ready to “take action in the Bab al-Mandab Strait if provoked.”
