Iran rejected the Trump Administration’s demand to cease uranium enrichment during negotiations conducted Friday in Geneva with European diplomats.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also told NBC News in an interview following the talks that his government is not prepared to negotiate further as long as Israel continues its attacks on the Islamic Republic.
One week ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, aimed at eliminating the existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear development program and its government’s repeated declarations to annihilate the Jewish State.
Araqchi emphasized that he has previously told US envoy Steve Witkoff “several times” that “zero enrichment is impossible.”
President Donald Trump has made clear that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon,” underscoring that Iran must eliminate its uranium enrichment program as part of that process and get rid of the enriched uranium it current has.
Iran possesses enough highly enriched uranium to create at least nine nuclear weapons within a matter of weeks, if not earlier, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Mariano Grossi.
In a statement following the talks in Geneva, Araqchi told reporters Iran has “serious concerns” about the failure of the E3 (UK, France and Germany) “to condemn the Zionist regime’s war of aggression” against the Islamic Republic.
“In case the (Israeli) aggression comes to a halt and the aggressor is held accountable for committing crimes, Iran will be ready to consider diplomacy. In this regard, I announced explicitly and clearly that Iran’s defense capabilities are not negotiable,” Araqchi said.
