Iran’s supreme leader opened the door to renewed negotiations with the United States on his country’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, telling the government there was “no barrier” to engaging with its “enemy.” Ali Khamenei’s remarks on Tuesday set clear red lines for any talks taking place under the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian and renewed his warnings that Washington wasn’t to be trusted.
But his remarks echo those at the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, which dramatically scaled back Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. Yet, given the tensions high in the wider Middle East, especially with Israel’s war on Gaza, and also with a presidential election looming in the US in November, it is still not clear what room there will be for Pezeshkian to maneuver.
We are not obliged to rest our hopes on the enemy. For our planning, we should not have to wait for the enemy’s approval,” Khamenei said in a video broadcast by state television. “It’s not contradictory to confront the very same enemy in other places, no obstacle. That’s it.” Khamenei, who has the final say in all state affairs, also cautioned Pezeshkian’s Cabinet, “Do not trust the enemy.”
Khamenei, 85, periodically has encouraged negotiations or rejected them with Washington since then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Khamenei’s remarks.
Indirect talks between Iran and the US mediated over the past few years by Oman and Qatar-two of the United States’ Middle East interlocutors when it comes to Iran-have been stalemated. Since the deal’s collapse, Iran has abandoned all limits that the deal put on its program, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.
Cameras installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Iranian nuclear activities have been disrupted. Iran has barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors. Iranian officials also have increasingly threatened that they could pursue atomic weapons.
