Iran says willing to hold nuclear talks, but not ‘under pressure and intimidation’
IAEA chief, in Tehran for talks about Iran’s atomic program, urges against attacks on Iranian nuclear installations, calls for diplomacy to resolve outstanding issues
Iran said on Thursday that it was willing to hold nuclear talks with world powers but will not negotiate “under pressure and intimidation,” as International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi met with the Islamic Republic’s top diplomat.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was “willing to negotiate” based on the “national interest” and “inalienable rights.”
Grossi, who arrived in Tehran late on Wednesday, was expected to negotiate with the country’s top nuclear and political officials, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
The IAEA chief also said there should be no attacks on Iranian nuclear installations and urged diplomacy to resolve compliance issues the UN watchdog has with the Iranians as he met with officials in Tehran.
“I say this with regards to Iran… nuclear installations should not be attacked,” Grossi told a news conference, days after Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities.”
Israel is believed to have destroyed parts of Iran’s air defenses in a series of strikes last month in retaliation for a massive Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel.
Israel reportedly considered but ruled out potential attacks on Iranian nuclear sites during the strikes, at least partly due to pressure from the Biden administration, though US President-elect Donald Trump may give Israel freer rein after he takes office in January. The Jewish state views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
Iran twice fired missiles directly at Israeli territory this year, prompting Israel to retaliate, most recently on October 26 when the Israeli Air Force hit Iranian military facilities. Iran has pledged to strike back, while Israel has threatened major consequences against Tehran if it does.
Grossi described his meeting with the Iranian foreign minister as “indispensable” in a post on X. Araghchi was a key negotiator in the talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, abandoned three years later by Trump.
For his part, Araghchi said the meeting was “important & straightforward,” and renewed Iran’s commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“We agreed to proceed with courage and goodwill. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear program,” he said in the X post.
Grossi also met the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, and was expected to meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian later on Thursday.
Grossi was visiting Tehran in an effort to restore inspectors’ access to Iran’s program and answer still-outstanding questions over it, as he has on previous trips, with limited success, since Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal, leading to its collapse.
Israel and other countries have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.
The remarks from both Grossi and Eslami suggested sizable gaps still exist, even as some countries are pushing to take action against Iran at an upcoming IAEA Board of Governors’ meeting.
“We know that it is indispensable to get, at this point of time, to get some concrete, tangible and visible results that will indicate that this joint work is improving [the] situation, is bringing clarification to things and in a general sense it is moving us away from conflict and ultimately war,” Grossi said.
Some Iranian politicians have suggested Iran abandon the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, known as the NPT, and pursue the bomb. Araghchi referred to Iran as “a committed member of NPT,” though Eslami warned Iran could retaliate if challenged at the upcoming IAEA Board of Governors’ meeting. Grossi acknowledged some nations were considering taking action against Iran.
Eslami told the joint news conference that Iran would take “immediate countermeasures” against any sanctions from the IAEA’s board of governors.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Tehran’s reaction to a resolution could be to limit diplomatic and technical cooperation with the IAEA.
Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have soured over several long-standing issues, including Iran barring the agency’s uranium enrichment experts from the country and its failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
In August, the agency said Iran’s production of highly enriched uranium continues, and it has not improved cooperation despite a resolution passed by the IAEA Board of Governors in June.
“It is in our power here to take concrete steps that will indicate clearly, to the US and the international community, that we can clarify things and move forward with concrete solutions,” Grossi said alongside Eslami.
Journalists at the news conference, as well as Eslami, criticized Israel for its alleged longtime sabotage and assassination campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear program. Some noted Israeli officials had threatened Iran’s nuclear sites as targets for potential retaliation as Iran and Israel trade direct attacks amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground and air offensive in Lebanon.
“The answer is in what we do here, what we, the IAEA, and Iran can do in terms of solving the questions at hand,” Grossi said, describing “a situation of tension” with Iran’s nuclear program at its center.
“I am here to work with Iran, [to] try to find adequate solutions to ease tensions, to move forward. This is my target. This is my concern. And I am confident that we are going to be able to do it,” he said.
But as the two men ended the news conference to shouted questions from journalists, neither offered any sign a breakthrough was imminent.
Grossi’s visit is his second to Tehran this year but his first since Trump’s re-election.
During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump adopted a policy called “maximum pressure” which reimposed sweeping US economic sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 deal.
In response, Iran started to gradually roll back its commitments under the deal, which barred it from enriching uranium to above 3.65 percent. Tehran has also switched off surveillance devices used to monitor its nuclear program and effectively barred IAEA inspectors.
The IAEA says Iran has significantly expanded its stocks of uranium enriched to 60%, a level that has triggered international alarm as it is much closer to the 90% level needed for a nuclear warhead, and has no peaceful applications.
Trump said last week that he was not seeking to harm Iran and instead wanted its people to have “a very successful country,” while insisting “they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
