Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the venue of the next round of indirect talks with the United States could change.<\/p>\n
Tehran – IranView24<\/strong><\/p>\n Araghchi made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Arabic after he delivered a speech as a special guest at the Al Jazeera Forum\u2019s opening panel in the Qatari capital, Doha on Saturday.<\/p>\n Iranian and American delegations, led by Araghchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, resumed nuclear talks in the Omani capital, Muscat on Friday, eight months after Israel\u2019s war against Iran last June. Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi was shuttling between the sides, with the talks being held indirectly as before.<\/p>\n Araghchi told Al Jazeera that after about six hours of talks, Iranian and US\u00a0diplomats agreed to hold a second round of negotiations, though no date has yet been set.<\/p>\n However, he said, Tehran and Washington believe it must be held \u201csoon,\u201d and\u00a0that the venue has not been fixed yet.<\/p>\n The first round of indirect talks between Iran and the US was originally set to take place in Istanbul. However, Iran requested a change in venue to Muscat, Oman, which has mediated past negotiations between Tehran and Washington.<\/p>\n Araghchi added that the possibility of war with the US always exists, reiterating that the Islamic Republic is prepared\u00a0\u201cfor both peace and war.\u201d<\/p>\n He assured regional countries that in case of a US attack, Iran\u00a0would only target American forces stationed in the region, and not the countries themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not attack neighboring countries; rather, we will target US bases stationed in them. There is a big difference between the two,\u201d Araghchi clarified.<\/p>\n He emphasized that issues related to Iran\u2019s nuclear program can only be resolved through negotiations, but rejected any talks on the country\u2019s missiles, calling them purely a defensive matter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe missile issue is a purely defensive matter for us and cannot be negotiated, neither now nor in the future, because it is a defensive matter,\u201d the foreign minister said.<\/p>\n He once again affirmed Iran\u2019s stance that the course of negotiations must be free of any threats or pressure, expressing hope that the US would pursue such an approach.<\/p>\n He stressed the importance of building trust to form realistic negotiations to reach a \u201cfair and mutually beneficial outcome”.<\/p>\n In response to a question about Iran\u2019s enrichment activities, the minister said the country\u2019s principled stance is opposition to any exit of enriched uranium from its territory.<\/p>\n However, he added, Iran is prepared to reduce the level of its uranium enrichment.<\/p>\n Speaking at the end of the Omani-mediated talks on Friday, Araghchi said the new round of indirect nuclear talks with the United States was a \u201cgood start\u201d and can be continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision on how to proceed with the negotiations will be made after consultations with the capitals,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s main demand in the Muscat talks was the effective and verifiable lifting of economic and financial sanctions. Tehran has repeatedly stressed that any agreement lacking tangible economic benefits would be of no practical value, making the timing and outcome of the negotiations especially important for Iran.<\/p>\n Iran insists on its legal right to enrich uranium on its own soil, describing the issue as a red line in the talks. From Tehran\u2019s perspective, any potential technical measures can only be considered within a framework that recognizes this right, and any preconditions beyond it would be seen as a sign of bad faith by the other side.<\/p>\n Iran\u00a0held five rounds of talks on a replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal before the US-Israeli airstrikes on the country and its nuclear facilities in mid-June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the venue of the next round of indirect talks with the United States could change. Tehran – IranView24 Araghchi made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Arabic after he delivered a speech as a special guest at the Al Jazeera Forum\u2019s opening panel in the Qatari […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":3832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,39,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-foreign-policy","category-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3833,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3831\/revisions\/3833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranview24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}