Iranian foreign minister says negotiations with U.S. may be off the table

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that talks with the United States may be off the table after the U.S. and Israel initiated a military operation against the country.

In an interview with PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz, Araghchi said he didn’t think talking with Americans ‘‘would be on our agenda anymore.’‘

Araghchi cited last year’s negotiations over Iran’s nuclear capabilities that preceded the U.S. bombing three of Iran’s nuclear sites in June. Trump, justifying the strikes, claimed that Iran ‘‘rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions.’‘

During the last round of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program in February, Americans promised they didn’t ‘‘have any intention to attack,’‘ Araghchi said, and did so anyway.

Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was named as his successor Sunday, more than a week after the elder Khamenei was killed in Israeli strikes.

Araghchi said it was ‘‘too soon’‘ for Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to make a public statement in his new role, to make any comments about talks with the U.S.

‘‘We are all waiting for his speeches and comments, which would come later on,’‘ he said. ‘‘But I don’t think the question of talking with Americans, or negotiation with the Americans once again, would be on the table because we have a very bitter experience of talking with the Americans.’‘

Trump, whose administration has provided varied and sometimes contradictory explanations for the war, demanded Iran’s ‘‘unconditional surrender’‘ as strikes continued last week. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday that this would be met when Trump determined that Iran ‘‘no longer poses a threat to the United States of America."

Mojtaba Khamenei had been seen as a contender for supreme leader before an Israeli strike hit the Tehran office of his 86-year-old father, killing him and ending his 36-year rule.

Ahead of the announcement, Trump had already dismissed Khamenei’s son as an ‘‘unacceptable’‘ choice, with the U.S. president saying he’d prefer ‘‘someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.’‘ He told NBC on Monday that the selection was ‘‘a big mistake.’‘ The president, who previously said he wanted to have a hand in picking Iran’s next leader, later told CBS News that he had someone else in mind to take over as supreme leader, but didn’t provide any details.

Araghchi told PBS News that Mojtaba’s ascension sends a message of ‘‘continuity and some sort of stability at the same time."

Gasoline prices are surging as the conflict disrupts oil production and shipping routes in the Middle East.

Prices at the pump in the U.S. jumped to an average of $3.48 a gallon, a nearly 17% increase since the first U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

The Middle East is home to some of the world’s top oil producers. The foreign minister was asked during the interview Monday whether he believes that Iran can effectively pressure the U.S. and Israel to stop their attacks by slowing or stopping oil production.

‘‘This is not our fault,’‘ Araghchi said. ‘‘This is not our plan.’‘

‘‘The transportation of oil has been slowed down or stopped not because of us, because of the attacks and aggression made by Israelis and Americans against us,’‘ he said. ‘‘They have made the whole region insecure.’‘

Araghchi said this is why oil tankers are ‘‘scared’‘ to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for the world’s energy supply that partly borders Iran.

‘‘We have not closed that strait. We are not preventing them to navigate in that strait,’‘ he added, saying the U.S.-Israeli strikes have consequences not only for Iran but for the international community.

Iran has also hit multiple oil facilities in other Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Araghchi said Iran is simply defending itself with these kinds of attacks. He called the U.S.-Israeli operation an ‘‘act of aggression that is absolutely illegal.’‘

‘‘We have already warned everybody in the region that if the U.S. attack us, since we cannot reach the American soil, we have to attack their bases in the region, their facilities, their installations, their assets,’‘ he said, ‘‘and as a result, the war would be spread into the whole region.’‘

‘‘This is the consequence of the U.S. aggression against us,’‘ he added. ‘‘We are not responsible for that."

Source: PBS News
--Agencies