Iranian negotiator says US treated talks like a real estate transaction
Iranian negotiator says US treated talks like a 'real estate transaction'
TEHRAN - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, seems to have affirmed long-standing criticism regarding the Trump administration's negotiating team, stating the group did not truly understand the complex diplomatic process they were involved in.
"When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when major lies cloud reality, unrealistic expectations can never be met," Araghchi wrote on X.
The outcome of such an attitude and behavior, he said, is "bombing the negotiation table out of spite."
"Mr. Trump betrayed diplomacy and the Americans who elected him," Araghchi added.
Iran's top diplomat led the negotiating delegation in two separate sets of nuclear talks with the U.S. in 2025 and 2026. The first round of discussions was derailed on June 13 after Israel and the U.S. launched a surprise bombing campaign on Iran, assassinating its nuclear scientists and severely damaging its nuclear sites. U.S. President Donald Trump claimed he had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program during that 12-day war.
Tehran and Washington re-entered nuclear talks in February following extensive mediation efforts by several regional countries, which assured the Iranians that Trump was serious about reaching a deal this time. After concluding a third round of negotiations last Thursday, Iran announced the two sides were moving closer to a deal. Omani mediators also reported that Iran had agreed to make significant concessions, including the elimination of all its highly enriched uranium—a step that would ensure it could never build nuclear weapons.
However, the U.S. and Israel bombed the negotiating table for a second time on February 28, ahead of a fourth round of talks in Vienna, by launching attacks on Iranian soil, including the office of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in central Tehran, whose location was public information. Ayatollah Khamenei was martyred alongside several family members, including his 14-month-old granddaughter. On the same day, the U.S. and Israel struck an active elementary school in southern Iran, killing 170 schoolgirls instantly. The two regimes have continued to attack schools, hospitals, and residential buildings in recent days. At least 1045 Iranians have been killed so far.
The Trump administration claimed it waged the war because Iran was close to building a nuclear weapon and posed an imminent threat to U.S. assets in West Asia. Both claims have been refuted—the former by IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi, who had also attended the talks, and the latter by the Pentagon.
Iran has responded with large-scale missile, drone, and fighter jet airstrikes on U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, as well as Israeli positions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Trump's lead negotiator in both sets of talks was his friend-turned-special presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, who had been active in real estate before taking the role. Iranian negotiators had told journalists in private briefings that Witkoff, as well as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner—who was added to the negotiating team in February—did not seem to grasp the complexities and different aspects of a diplomatic process. The two figures have also been negotiating the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and have only managed to further complicate those situations over the past year.
Regional countries are now urging Iran to return to the negotiating table, without mentioning Trump’s double betrayal of diplomacy. Iranians, however, state they will not be engaging with the U.S. again.
"We have no trust in the Americans, and we have no intention of holding any negotiations with the U.S.," said Mohammad Mokhber, the top aide to the late Ayatollah Khamenei, during a Wednesday interview with Iranian media.
"We can continue the war for as long as necessary, just as we did during the eight years of the Holy Defense," he added, referencing Iran's resistance against the Iraqi invasion by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, when Iran's military capabilities were nowhere near what they are today.
It appears Tehran seeks for the U.S. and Israel to feel tangible consequences for aggression against Iran in order to establish deterrence. A military official stated in remarks to national television on Wednesday that the country will only stop the war once all its predetermined targets have been hit and the enemy has "learned its lesson."
Meanwhile, Iran's Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body elected by the Iranian people every four years, is currently in the process of selecting the next Iranian Leader, as mandated by Iran's constitution. For now, a temporary council consisting of the Judiciary Chief, the President, the Parliament Speaker, and a representative from the Guardian Council is fulfilling the late Leader's duties until the new one is chosen.
source: tehrantimes.com