U.S. President Donald Trump has no justification to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, the Iranian Student News Agency quoted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as saying on Sunday, as Washington and Tehran continue to face disagreements over nuclear issues.
The war, now in its eighth week, has killed thousands, and sent oil prices surging because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.
“Trump says Iran cannot make use of its nuclear rights but doesn’t say for what crime. Who is he to deprive a nation of its rights?” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying.
This comes as American and Iranian negotiators met last weekend in Islamabad, with the U.S. proposing a 20-year suspension of all Iranian nuclear activity, while Iran suggested a halt of three to five years, the Reuters news agency reported, citing people familiar with the proposals.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said no date had been set for the next round of negotiations, adding that a framework of understanding must be agreed first.
“I have to be very crystal clear that Iran would not accept to be an exception from the international law. Anything that we are going to be committed will be within the international regulations and international law,” Khatibzadeh said during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, referring to Iran’s nuclear programme.
Trump had said on Friday there could be talks this weekend and that the two sides were “very close to making a deal.”
There were signs that security was being ramped up in the Pakistani capital on Sunday, though preparations were not at last weekend’s levels.
More police officers were deployed and checkpoints installed around the Serena hotel, the location of the highest-level U.S.-Iran negotiations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ended without agreement.
Senior national security aides gathered at the White House on Saturday morning. Trump later went to the Trump National Golf Club with top envoy Steve Witkoff, one of his Iran negotiators.
Separately, the head of Russia’s state atomic energy company, Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said on Saturday that Rosatom was ready to help with the removal of enriched uranium from Iran, and that the company was closely following the progress of U.S.-Iran talks.
