Iran dismisses U.S. optimism, says enrichment suspension not on the table

Iran will “never accept” temporarily suspending uranium enrichment to secure a nuclear deal with the U.S., a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, adding that no date had yet been set for a sixth round of talks with Washington.

“If there is goodwill from the American side, we are also optimistic, but if talks are aimed at curbing Iran’s rights, then talks will get nowhere,” spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told a press conference.

The statements from Tehran came in response to US President Donald Trump’s remarks on Sunday that U.S. negotiators had “very good” talks with an Iranian delegation over the weekend.

“I think we could have some good news on the Iran front,” Trump told reporters at the Morristown, New Jersey, airport as he prepared to return to Washington after a weekend at his Bedminster golf club.

Trump said serious progress had been made. He did not elaborate on the talks in Rome between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and an Iranian delegation.

“I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good,” he said.

On Friday, a senior US official said that Witkoff and the Iranian delegation held “constructive” talks in Rome for more than two hours and agreed to meet again in the near future.

“We made further progress, but there is still work to be done. Both sides agreed to meet again in the near future. We are grateful to our Omani partners for their continued facilitation,” the official added.

Last week, however, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected U.S. demands to halt uranium enrichment as “excessive and outrageous”, warning that the talks are unlikely to yield results.

According to Reuters, the lack of trust on both sides and President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 accord with world powers have also raised the importance for Iran of getting guarantees that Washington will not renege on a future accord.

Wendy Sherman, former U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs who led the U.S. negotiating team that reached the 2015 accord between Tehran and six world powers, said it was impossible to convince Tehran to “dismantle its nuclear programme and give up their enrichment even though that would be ideal”.

“So that means they will come to an impasse, and that we will face the potential for war, which I don’t think, quite frankly, President Trump looks forward to because he has campaigned as a peace president,” she said.

Even if enrichment disputes narrow, lifting sanctions remains fraught. The U.S. favours phasing out nuclear-related sanctions, while Tehran demands immediate removal of all restrictions, Reuters said.

In the meantime, France, Britain and Germany, though not part of the U.S.-Iran talks, have warned they would reimpose U.N. sanctions if no deal emerged quickly.

Under the 2015 nuclear pact’s U.N. resolution, the E3 have until October 18 to trigger the so-called “snapback mechanism” before the resolution expires.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told a parliamentary commission that any misuse of the “snapback” mechanism to reinstate United Nations sanctions on Iran would be met with a “severe” response.

The warning came as Araqchi briefed members of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission on the latest round of indirect talks with the United States.

“Iran has never left the negotiating table and prefers diplomacy, but will respond harshly to the activation of JCPOA’s snapback mechanism,” he said.

According to diplomats and a document seen by Reuters, the E3 countries may resort to the “snapback mechanism” by August if no substantial deal can be found by then.

Diplomats warn that getting a deal before then would mean, in the best-case scenario, an initial political framework like in 2013 whereby both sides offer some immediate concrete concessions, giving time for a more detailed negotiation.

“There is no reason to think it will take less time than the 18 months in 2013, especially when the parameters and the geopolitical situation is more complicated now,” a senior European official said.

The 2013 agreement was the first formal deal between Iran and the U.S./Western powers in over a decade and set the stage for the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.