CNN
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Iranian President Masuud Pezeshkian said his country supports negotiations with the United States to avoid war, but refused to describe him as a threat from President Donald Trump.
“We do not seek war. We support negotiations and dialogue, but we are not afraid of threats. We will never step back from legal rights,” Peshshkian said at an event in the port city of Bandar Abbas on Saturday.
The comments Pezeschkian mentioned are unknown, but Trump told reporters during his trip to the Middle East this week that Iran must “moves quickly” in negotiations with the US or “something bad will happen.”
The US and Iran concluded talks on the fourth round in Oman on Sunday, with the aim of curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and suspending the uranium enrichment program. No new rounds have been announced yet.
“No one believes what Trump himself says about the Iranian state,” Pezeschkian said. “On the one hand he speaks of peace and stability, and on the other hand he threatens (we) with statements that contradict the most sophisticated tools for murder. He simultaneously sends a message of peace, bloodshed and uncertainty.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also mentioned Trump’s unspecified comments about Iran, calling it “disgrace to the American nation” and “not worthy of a response at all.”
Trump said Friday that the US had submitted a formal proposal for nuclear deals, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragut said Iran has not received such written proposals either directly or indirectly from Washington.
“There is no scenario in which Iran will waive its hard-earned right to enrichment (uranium) for peaceful purposes.
In an interview with Breitbart last week, US foreign envoy Steve Witkov said Iran’s uranium enrichment program must be dismantled, but in a previous interview with Fox News, Iran could be allowed to enrich uranium at a low level.
The recent round of talks between the US and Iran in Muscat, Oman’s capital, was described as “difficult” by a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A top Trump administration official gave a more positive review, telling CNN that the discussion that lasted more than three hours was encouraging.
During the Gulf tour, Trump repeatedly warned Iran that he should never get nuclear weapons and threatened to attack the country if he could not reach a nuclear deal with the US. However, he does not explicitly exclude uranium, which enriches Iran. Enriched uranium can be used for peaceful purposes such as energy generation, but once it is concentrated to a high level, it can be converted into a weapon.