Tehran, Iran – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi reiterated that the final solution to his country’s nuclear program is negotiation.
In response to a Fars News Agency correspondent, Araqchi said that the cooperation agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was concluded in Cairo on September 9, is no longer appropriate. “And it cannot constitute a basis for cooperation between the two sides.”
He added, “In my view, the Cairo Agreement is no longer valid for the current situation”.
He explained that the Iranian authorities will soon announce their position on cooperation with the agency.
A negotiated solution
In addition, he pointed out that previous experiences have proven that “there is no solution to the nuclear program other than a diplomatic and negotiated solution”.
He said: “In recent years, threats to launch a military attack have been repeated. But this method has not been able to solve any problem”.
Snapback complicated things
He also stressed that activating the Snapback mechanism did not lead to an effective solution. Rather, it made the negotiation process more complex and difficult.
He added that the three European countries (France, Germany and Britain) “believed that they could achieve a result using Snapback. But this tool was not useful and made diplomacy more complicated”.
In addition, Araqchi stressed that the path of diplomacy will continue. However, he considered that European countries have become weaker in the path of the upcoming negotiations. The justifications for their negotiating participation have declined.
The veteran minister revealed last week that his country had submitted several proposals for a solution to the European Troika, but they were rejected.
He considered that activating the “trigger mechanism” aims to push Tehran to make concessions, which he described as unreasonable or impossible.
US requests ‘unacceptable’
In turn, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian last week described the American requests as unacceptable.
He said at the time, “They asked that we hand them all the enriched uranium in exchange for delaying the resumption of sanctions for 3 months.. This is ridiculous.”
It is noteworthy that meetings at the highest levels intensified more than a week ago on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Especially between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Iranian counterpart, in an effort to reach a settlement on sanctions and conclude a new agreement. But to no avail.
The European Troika countries that launched the “trigger mechanism” path late last August called on Tehran to grant IAEA inspectors full access to all nuclear facilities.
It stipulated the resumption of negotiations with Washington. It also required the adoption of a mechanism to ensure the security of the enriched uranium stockpile.
While Iran considered these conditions unfair and putting pressure on it, stressing that its nuclear program is peaceful.