Iran on Tuesday accused the United States of deliberately torpedoing negotiations to end the war, amid concerns that a fragile ceasefire in place since early April might eventually collapse after US President Donald Trump forcefully rejected an Iranian proposal for a permanent agreement.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the US was not looking for real negotiations, but for the full capitulation of Iran.
Rather than pursuing a give-and-take approach to diplomacy, the US was seeking to subjugate his country through its demands, Baqaei said in an interview with India Today Global, in comments carried by the Iranian news agency ISNA.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi also criticized the US negotiating tactics, accusing the country of seeking "a letter of surrender" from his country.
Iran’s position is clear, he wrote on X. Tehran wants an end to hostilities, no resumption of the conflict, compensation, an end to the blockade, the lifting of sanctions, and respect for Iran’s international rights, Gharibabadi said.
Trump on Monday denounced a "stupid proposal" from Tehran on how to end the war, warning that the ceasefire was "on life support."
Trump said Iran agreed in recent days to allow the US to remove enriched uranium from the country. "But they changed their mind because they didn't put it in the paper," he added.
Iran denied the claim, with the Tasnim news agency - which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - reporting that the regime's negotiating team never agreed for its highly enriched uranium to be transported outside the country.
Parliamentary sources in Tehran said on Tuesday that the Iranian leadership believes a resumption of hostilities is likely.
A well-informed source familiar with the matter said that there were no new developments regarding the negotiations between the US and Iran.
