TEHRAN/DUBAI: Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Sunday the United States was not to be trusted, saying Tehran would not agree to any deal with Washington unless it fully secured Iranian rights.
“We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been upheld,” Ghalibaf said, in a video broadcast on state television. He added that Iranian negotiators “neither trust the enemy’s words nor its promises.” Ghalibaf said, “Our only criterion is to achieve tangible results before we fulfill our commitments in return.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media on Sunday that talks and message exchanges with the United States are ongoing. “We should not give importance to speculation and we cannot judge the talks until we get to a clear result, Araghchi added.
Iran views sanction relief and the release of its assets frozen in banks abroad as among its key rights to be ensured under any deal with the United States.
Ghalibaf’s remarks came as reports emerged that US President Donald Trump had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Iran, and underlined the rift that the parties still need to close.
Any tweaks to the draft could further delay an agreement to formally end the Middle East war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz after weeks of fraught negotiations marked by sharp rhetoric and occasional flare-ups of violence.
Iran was already in talks with the United States about the fate of its nuclear programme in February when the US and Israel launched air and missile strikes that wiped out much of the Islamic republic’s senior leadership.
And, while Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear programme is for purely civilian ends, the United States and its Western allies suspect it aims to develop a weapon.
The New York Times and Axios reported on Saturday that Trump had sent back a “tougher” new framework to be considered by Iran, though details remain unclear.
Trump has said his priorities include stopping Iran from developing any nuclear weapon and reopening the Hormuz shipping lane, which Iran has blockaded since the war began. “The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that, and it was very interesting,” he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview on her Fox News show.
Tehran, however, has previously cast doubt on Trump’s assertions and the sides remain far apart on key issues.
According to the Tasnim news agency, exchanges on the text “are ongoing, with both parties regularly proposing amendments. “No agreement has yet been finalised, and it is possible that any agreement will be rejected,” it said.
Iran has said it needs the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before engaging in substantive talks on its nuclear programme, dismissing earlier Trump comments that its enriched uranium stockpile would be destroyed as “baseless”, according to Iranian media.
One of Washington’s stated war aims was the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, with General Dan Caine—the top US military officer—estimating in April that more than 80 per cent of its missile facilities had been struck.
But CNN reported on Sunday that an analysis of satellite imagery showed Tehran has since been able to excavate 50 out of 69 tunnel entrances hit by US strikes at 18 underground missile sites.
Though daily strikes throughout Iran and the Gulf halted after Tehran and Washington agreed to a temporary ceasefire in April, there have been sporadic attacks.
After Trump said Iran would charge “no tolls” on ships passing through the strait under any deal, Iranian news agency Fars cited sources saying “no such clause” existed.
After Trump and US officials earlier said they were on the brink of striking a deal, he struck a less urgent tone and hinted at renewed military action in the Fox interview. “I’m in no hurry,” he said. “Slowly but surely we’re getting, I think, what we want and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end in a different way.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards navy said 28 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the ground forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have attacked the bases of separatist groups in northern Iraq. It was not clear which specific locations had been attacked.
Iran has restored gas production at three offshore platforms in the South Pars gas field that had been forced to halt output after Israeli attacks disrupted processing capacity at some onshore facilities, the chief executive of the Pars Oil and Gas Company told state media on Sunday.
Touraj Dehqani said the platforms had not been damaged. He said production from the three platforms was being routed to other processing plants in the region while repairs continue at damaged facilities, including the Phase 14 refinery.
The head of the Iranian government’s Information Council has denied reports by what he described as “some foreign media outlets” claiming that President Masoud Pezeshkian has resigned, Al Arabiya English reported.
Claims that Pezeshkian has stepped down “bear no relation to reality”, Elias Hazrati wrote on X. “It appears that those behind these reports are less interested in informing the public than in sowing despair, division and discord in national unity, though they will ultimately fail,” he added.
A UK-based Persian-language news channel, Iran International, reported that a source told it that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted an official letter of resignation to the Office of the Supreme Leader.
The news channel stated that in the letter sent on Sunday, Pezeshkian stressed that the president and the government have effectively been excluded from major and vital decision-making processes in the country, and that the vacuum created by this situation has enabled hardline factions within the IRGC to take control of affairs, the source said. It is not yet clear whether Mojtaba Khamenei will accept the president’s resignation.
Adds Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
Pakistan will make a significant announcement with regard to its mediation efforts in Iran-US conflict on Thursday (June 4), which is likely to be articulated by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the embassy compound of the United States in Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave where he would be guest of honour at “US 250th Independence Day celebrations”. The US mission has made elaborate arrangements for the occasion. “One unforgettable celebration! Honouring a legacy of courage, democracy and freedom,” is the theme of start of the year long events.
The US Charge d’Affaires, Natalie A Baker, has earmarked who will lead events. She has extended invitations to a select group of elites from across the country to join her.
Well-placed diplomatic sources told The News/Jang here Sunday that since July 4 is falling in the month of Muharram, the embassy has decided to hold the starting event one month in advance. Ms. Baker has invited heads of various political parties, diplomats, distinguished people belonging to various shades of life for the inaugural ceremony.
Interestingly the dress code for the guests has been determined as “Hollywood Glam” without any other alternative. It is understood that the event would generate new pattern of diplomatic activities in the federal capital.
The US embassy would also hold events in Karachi and Lahore with regard to the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Freedom in upcoming weeks after Muharram.
The sources reminded that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would also throw light in his address on the role of US President Donald Trump for brining stability in the region and his affection for Pakistan and peace.
The Prime Minister would also highlight Pakistan’s efforts for a truce between Iran and the United States. He would eulogise significant contribution made by COAS and CDF Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir in this regard. He will extend his felicitations to the people of the United States on celebrations, marking a quarter-millennium since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
