Iran formally ruled out any further participation in U.S. nuclear negotiations unless a series of preconditions are met, Iran’s parliament ruled this week.
In a Wednesday statement, Iran accused U.S. officials of working in bad faith earlier this year during nuclear negotiations, adding that the U.S. provided support for Israel during its bombing campaign.
“When the United States uses negotiations as a cover for deception and enables the Israeli regime’s surprise military assault, it is no longer possible to negotiate as before,” the statement reads. “Preconditions must be set, and until they are completely fulfilled, no new talks should take place.”
The statement does not outline specific preconditions that U.S. leaders must hit before negotiations can restart. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has previously said Iran will not continue negotiations until it receives guarantees that Tehran is safe from further strikes.
The U.S. and Iran conducted five rounds of Omani-mediated nuclear negotiations earlier this year before the process was interrupted by Israel’s preemptive strikes on Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities on June 13.
After days of Israeli strikes, the U.S. launched airstrikes on several Iranian enrichment sites, using massive bunker buster bombs on the well-fortified facilities. The extent of the damage done by U.S. and Israeli strikes is not yet known, but most analyses suggest the strikes significantly damaged the sites.
Still, the damage may have been enough for President Trump, who has maintained that the U.S.-led strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. He said on Tuesday that he was in no rush to make a deal with Iran but agreed with the August deadline set by England, France and Germany.
All three EU countries are set to reimpose international sanctions on Iran via the snapback measure if Tehran does not agree to a deal by the end of August.
A deal would be challenging to finalize in less than two months. The U.S. and Iran remain at an impasse regarding uranium enrichment; Washington insists that Iran dismantle its enrichment facilities, while Tehran maintains its right to enrich uranium.
