Iran is seeking a “peaceful” nuclear agreement with the United States, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh.
“Tehran is not seeking nuclear bombs and … is prepared to assure the world about it. We are very proud of our home-grown nuclear program,” he said, as reported by Reuters.
The comments come as President Donald Trump said last week that Iran has been seeking lifted sanctions. “Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has got very heavy U.S. sanctions, and it makes it really hard for them to do what they’d like to be able to do. And I’m open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens, but I would be open to it,” he told reporters.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also claimed, as per Newsweek, that the U.S. push for cooperation can come “[o]nly if the United States completely cuts its backing for the Zionist regime, removes its military bases from the region, and ceases interfering in its affairs, their request for cooperation with Iran, not in the near future but much later, could be examined.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently warned that it believes most of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile survived the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on nuclear sites. Grossi noted multiple outcomes remain possible, including Iran reducing enrichment, relocating the stockpile abroad, or escalating toward weaponization.
In June, the United States conducted Operation Midnight Hammer, obliterating Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites. At the time, the IAEA acknowledged “enormous damage” and Iran’s foreign minister confirms “serious damage” to those sites.
