Iran says it is willing to hold nuclear talks, but not ‘under pressure and intimidation’

Iran says it is willing to hold nuclear talks, but will not negotiate “under pressure and intimidation” as International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi met Iran’s top diplomat.

The crunch nuclear talks in Tehran are taking place weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump was the architect of a “maximum pressure” policy that reimposed sweeping US economic sanctions that had been lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal.

Grossi, who arrived in Tehran late yesterday, is expected “to negotiate with the country’s top nuclear and political officials,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reports.

Grossi described his meeting with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as “indispensable” in a post on X. Araghchi was Iran’s chief negotiator in the talks that led to the 2015 deal.

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 good will. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear program,” he says in his post.

Araghchi said Iran was “willing to negotiate” based on the “national interest” and “inalienable rights,” but was not “ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation.”

Grossi also met the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, the Tasnim news agency reports.

Later, the IAEA chief is expected to meet President Masoud Pezeshkian.