Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart following their meeting in Istanbul. AFP
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking in Istanbul after arriving for talks with Turkish officials, said Iran would not meet US officials under current conditions. “We are ready for fair and equitable negotiations,” he told a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, adding that Iran had “never sought to obtain nuclear weapons”.
Araghchi said no arrangements had been made for talks with Washington and that preparatory work was needed first. “No meeting plan has been set between us and the Americans,” he said, citing the need to agree on the format, venue and subject of any discussions.
Tensions have risen after the United States moved an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, along with several guided-missile destroyers, into the Middle East, and deployed additional air assets. It remains unclear whether President Donald Trump would authorise military attack.
Turkey has offered to help mediate. President Tayyip Erdogan told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call earlier on Friday that Ankara was ready to act as a facilitator between Iran and the United States, according to statements from both sides.
“We are against resorting to military options to solve problems,” Fidan said. “We advocate negotiation and diplomacy.”Araghchi’s visit to Turkey comes amid growing international pressure on Tehran.
The European Union agreed this week to list Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation over alleged crackdown on domestic protests.
Araghchi criticised the move in a post on X, saying several countries were working to prevent a wider war in the region and adding: “None of them are European.”
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