TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was bombarded with questions about a potential new round of nuclear talks with the U.S. as he exited a cabinet meeting and encountered journalists waiting outside.

Journalists routinely gather on Tehran’s Pasteur Street every Wednesday to question government officials. This week, a significant number of inquiries focused on the United States and the prospects of renewed diplomacy, following a week of discussions by Araghchi and other Iranian officials on negotiations, and remarks by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution concerning the possibility of normalization with Washington.

The remarks made in the past week, despite being mostly pessimistic, had spurred speculation about whether another round of negotiations was close, especially after Washington scrapped the previous one by bombing Iran in the middle of the diplomatic process. However, when asked if Iran was looking for a new mediator to facilitate talks between the two countries, Araghchi stated there were no talks in the picture, making a new mediator unnecessary. “There are no plans for negotiations, what do we need mediators for?” he said to a journalist.

Araghchi led a diplomatic delegation that participated in five rounds of indirect nuclear talks with the United States in April and June. These Omani-mediated discussions were slated to continue with a sixth session in Muscat before Israel and the U.S. launched a 12-day bombing campaign against Iranian territory on June 13. The campaign targeted Iran’s civilian, nuclear, and military infrastructure, killing around 1100 Iranians, most of whom were civilians.

During the 12 days that Israeli and American fighter jets targeted Iran, and Iranian missiles ripped through air defenses in the occupied territories as well as a U.S. Airbase in Qatar, the world – particularly West Asia – held its breath. The conflict constantly threatened to spill over at any moment, risking a regional conflagration with international reverberations. After the war, Arabs, Europeans, Russians, and the Chinese alike hoped that the two sides could once again engage in diplomacy, despite Washington having essentially bombed the negotiating table in June. It appears, however, that new negotiations are very unlikely. This is not merely because the unprecedented and illegal U.S. aggression fostered a domestic view that Washington desired talks as a smokescreen. It also stems from the American tendency to seek talks with predetermined outcomes. According to Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, Washington wants Iran to not only implement full caps on its nuclear program, but also lower the range of its missiles, and cut ties with Resistance forces. In his remarks to journalists on Wednesday, Araghchi said Iran will never agree to negotiate non-nuclear issues. 

Washington's negotiating behavior, coupled with its documented history of abandoning commitments with Iran, significantly contributes to distrust and the belief that talks with Americans will lead nowhere, according to Ebrahim Rezayi, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee.

"The United States has already betrayed its promises twice. Once in 2018 when the Trump administration abandoned the JCPOA, and again during the Biden administration when the two sides agreed to swap prisoners,” the lawmaker told the Tehran Times.

Three years after the JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran, the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Russia, and China, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the UN-endorsed pact — which had offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities — and reinstated harsh sanctions. In September 2023, under the Biden administration, Iran and the U.S. reached an agreement to release five detainees from each side and allow South Korea to transfer the oil money it owed to Iran. The $6-billion sum was indeed transferred from South Korea to two Qatari banks. But after securing its prisoners, Washington ordered Doha to once again freeze the Iranian funds.

“The U.S. must understand that Iran is an independent and dignified nation. We will not allow Americans to dictate their demands, nor will we enter another agreement that would ultimately be abandoned. Americans must first change their behavior and their view of Iranians. Until then, even negotiating with the U.S. would be detrimental,” Rezayi added.

President Masoud Pezeshkian appeared to be of the same mind as the legislator during a phone conversation with President Emanuel Macron of France. “Iran always favors diplomacy, but the West must first regain our trust and prove their sincerity,” he told the French leader.