Iran is ready to give the United States a chance to resolve disputes between the arch foes, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump restored his "maximum pressure" campaign on the country.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that U.S. concerns about Iran developing nuclear weapons were not a complicated issue and could be resolved given Tehran's opposition to weapons of mass destruction.
"The clerical establishment's will is to give diplomacy with Trump another chance, but Tehran is deeply concerned about Israel's sabotage," said the senior official.
The official said Tehran wanted the United States to "rein in Israel if Washington is seeking a deal" with the Islamic Republic.
Trump said on Wednesday he preferred a verified nuclear peace agreement with Iran, according to a post on his Truth Social account.
Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, downplayed the impact of sanctions on Iran.
"America threatens new sanctions, but Iran is a powerful and resource-rich country that can navigate challenges by managing its resources," Pezeshkian said in a televised inauguration ceremony.
Tehran has long said its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and it has no intention to build nuclear weapons.
But with its regional allies either dismantled or gravely weakened since the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza in October 2023, and mounting discontent among many Iranians at the state of the economy, analysts say the clerical establishment has few options other than to strike a deal with Trump.
The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December, a crucial ally of Tehran, has severely disrupted Tehran's "Axis of Resistance", a network of regional armed groups, militants and allied states, to counter Israel and the United States, while asserting its influence throughout the Middle East.
In 2018, then-President Trump ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country's economy. The harsh measures prompted Tehran to violate the nuclear pact's nuclear limitations.
The official also said Tehran disagreed with "any displacement of Gazans, but Iran-U.S. talks are a separate matter", referring to Trump's remarks that the U.S. would take over war-ravaged Gaza and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.
"Iran does not agree with any displacement of Palestinians and has communicated this through various channels. However, this issue and the path of Iran’s nuclear agreement are two separate matters and should be pursued separately,” the official said.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
8 Comments
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iknowall
Another coup by Trump, showing how strength in a leader is an asset.
I'veSeenFootage
Unfortunately the warmongers in office have no interest in diplomacy at all. They just want to bomb Iran.
Blacklabel
Peace by strength.
guess someone in Iran heard this warning and decided to listen this time.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They heard this warning through what mechanism? The Israeli bombing under and guided by the Biden administration?
TaiwanIsNotChina
You should wait for the slightest signs of success before declaring success.
TaiwanIsNotChina
There is no way Iran is giving up its one sided war on Israel and the US.
theFu
Iran has been shooting and supplying thousands of missiles to enemies. Let them squirm. Iranian people need to decide what they want more and vote accordingly.
Iran has been attacking US interests around the world for decades. Less than 1 yr ago,
That's a pretty serious aggressive behavior from a country claiming to want diplomacy. In fact, the US didn't attack Iran after that, rather the US attacked ex-Iranian locations in response.
Iran is more of an enemy to the US than Russia, but not as great an enemy as the country who killed 1.1M Americans from 2020 until 2023 and over 6M people worldwide.
The US has no interest in attacking Iran and if they stop attacking US interests around the world for even 6 months, diplomacy might get a chance. The ball is in Iran's hands, if only they can show some good will, which is doubtful.
Fos
Let us not forget that United States are an imperialist country trying to safeguard its own interests under the direction of the big US industrial military complex, the same one that President Dwight Eisenhower warned against in 1961.
History lesson:
In 1953 Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran's prime minister, was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup known as Operation Ajax. His government had nationalized Iran's oil industry, angering both the British and the U.S. After his removal, the Shah was restored to power, marking the beginning of an authoritarian regime until the 1979 Revolution.