IRAN – Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that Iran will not negotiate under “intimidation” as he held crunch talks with the UN nuclear chief weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said achieving “results” in nuclear talks with Iran was vital to avoid a new conflict in the region already inflamed by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. His visit comes just days after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities” giving Israel “the opportunity to achieve our most important goal”. Grossi said Iranian nuclear installations “should not be attacked” but Trump is expected to give Israel a far freer rein after he takes office in January.

The IAEA chief described his meeting with Araghchi as “indispensable” in a post on X. Araghchi was Iran’s chief negotiator in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, abandoned three years later by Trump.

Araghchi posted that their meeting was “important & straightforward”. He said Iran was “willing to negotiate” based on the “national interest” and “inalienable rights,” but was not “ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation”. “We agreed to proceed with courage and good will. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear programme,” he said. Grossi also met the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Eslami. Eslami told a joint news conference that Iran would take “immediate countermeasures” against any sanctions from the IAEA’s board of governors. “Any interventionist resolution in the nuclear affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely be met with immediate countermeasures,” Eslami said. (Jamaicaobserver)

Photo: In this picture released by the Iranian Defense Ministry on Thursday, May 25, 2023. (AP)