Iran is willing to have nuclear talks with the U.S. but must be convinced the negotiations are not merely cover for further military action, Tehran's nuclear negotiator Kazem Gharibabadi said on Wednesday, Axios reported.
Concerns about future attacks are one reason Iran wants assurances on the Trump administration's seriousness before returning to negotiations, he said.
Gharibabadi emphasized that "we don't trust the U.S.," explaining that American officials were discussing the dates for future talks with Tehran last month while at the same time coordinating war plans with Israel, Axios reported.
Gharibabadi said that Iran knows it needs to negotiate with the U.S. in order to get sanctions lifted and avoid new ones.
This comes as Tehran and the "E3" — France, Germany, and the U.K. — plan to hold discussions in Istanbul on Friday on the issue of "snapback" sanctions.
The European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal could impose those harsh sanctions for Tehran's non-compliance.
Gharibabadi said the upcoming negotiations with the E3 were "important" but not "decisive," because even if a deal is not reached "we still have time."
Although the U.S. and the E3 decided on the end of August as a deadline to impose the snapback sanctions if no U.S.-Iran deal is reached by then, Gharibabadi suggested that was a soft deadline, noting that the E3 had also called Iran's foreign minister to express their desire to come to an arrangement.
Gharibabadi also stressed that it was important that the Europeans not coordinate their positions with Washington ahead of time because, if they did so, there is no point negotiating with them.
The power to impose snapback sanctions ends in October, but the Europeans are expected to discuss extending that deadline. In return, they want Iran to take steps toward resuming the work of UN inspectors in its nuclear facilities and possibly move its 60% highly enriched uranium to another country.
Gharibabadi said Iran had invited a technical team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Tehran in the next few weeks, but not to visit its nuclear sites, according to Axios.
Tehran suspended its cooperation with the IAEA following the Israeli and U.S. attacks.
Gharibabadi criticized IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi for not condemning those attacks, but he said Iran was willing to talk about "a new modality" for cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, including access to the nuclear sites that were not attacked and also those that were.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.