Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian has said that his country has “no problem” restarting nuclear talks, provided that trust can be re-established with the US.
He made this remark in an interview with US media personality, Tucker Carlson.
Carlson’s interview, conducted via an interpreter, is one the first interviews the Iranian President has given with western media since the 12-day war fought between Israel and Iran last month.
“We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations.
“There is a condition … for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again? We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us?”
Masoud Pezeshkian
Pezeshkian said that another war would only further destabilise the Middle East, which will not be in the interest of the US, either. Pezeshkian also told Carlson, “We did not start this war and we do not want this war to continue in any way.”
He asserted that while holding nuclear negotiations, the Trump administration tried to reassure that Israel would not attack when diplomacy was ongoing. But then “Israel torpedoed the negotiating table”
He insisted that his slogan for his presidential campaign had been to create internal national unity and to foster friendship with Iran’s neighbours.
Also, the Iranian President urged that the US administration refrain from getting involved in a war that is “not America’s war; it is Netanyahu’s war.”
“I believe that the US President is powerful enough to put Israel and Netanyahu in their place and contain them, and to replace warmongering, bloodshed and conflicts with peace and tranquility.”
Masoud Pezeshkian
Pezeshkian noted that he wants stability and believes US President, Donald Trump has a choice as he “can lead the region towards peace and tranquility or, on the other hand, towards forever wars.”
Additionally, Pezeshkian disclosed that there was “severe damage” to Iran’s nuclear facilities and equipment, and that officials did not have access to the sites deep underground to assess the possibility of granting access to the IAEA.
“We still do not know the extent of the damage caused to the nuclear sites…Once access is restored, we can consider inspections. The IAEA’s silence in the face of these attacks, which are contrary to international law, has sown mistrust among the Iranians.”
Masoud Pezeshkian
Iranian President Accuses Israel Of Assassination Attempt
Moreover, the Iranian President said that Israel attempted to assassinate him by bombarding an area in which he was holding a meeting.“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian said in the interview.
“It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting … they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting.”
Masoud Pezeshkian
Donald Trump has already said that he blocked the Israelis from trying to assassinate the 86-year-old Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who remained in hiding for nearly three weeks.
He attended a religious ceremony in Tehran at the weekend that was greeted with excitement and relief by government loyalists. He had previously made three video appearances looking pale, if defiant.
A move to kill Pezeshkian, elected last summer, would be a qualitatively different step by Israel and underline the extent to which it was not seeking just to weaken Iran’s military leadership and cadre of nuclear scientists, but to destroy the political leadership as well.
At times during the 12-day war, Trump spoke in favour of regime change, but seemed to back off as the campaign persisted.
He now talks in terms of securing a permanent deal with Iran, but the detail of what the US is willing to offer Iran is light.
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