Iran says US’ response to its conditions for talks are insufficient — Iranian official

TUNIS, October 11. /TASS/. Iran considers the United States' response to the terms set by Tehran for the start of negotiations to be insufficient, even though Washington has accepted some of them, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said.

"The Americans have ow responded. In their response, they accepted some of our conditions, but certain issues remain unclear. Thus, the Americans have responded to us, but we are not responding to them. The Americans have given us a response, and we consider their response insufficient," he said, as quoted by Press TV. "Naturally, we want them to remove these ambiguities. We need to see whether they can clarify them so that the next stages can begin, or not."

According to Rezaei, in recent months, Washington has repeatedly contacted Tehran via mediators proposing to resume diplomatic contacts. "Over the past two months, the Americans have been conveying proposals to us via three channels - Pakistan, Qatar, and even Iraq - and asked us to present our own proposals to them. We have conveyed seven conditions to the Americans and stated that if they do not meet these conditions, neither will the Strait of Hormuz be opened to them, nor will there be any negotiations," he stressed.

He also said that Tehran has changed its stance on diplomatic contacts with the United States and will not return to the previous format of talks. "Our diplomacy has changed, and we will not return to the old model. Because we had three rounds of negotiations, and during each round, the Americans cut them short and attacked Iran," he stated.

The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding envisaging an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. However, the United States resumed large-scale attacks on Iran overnight to July 8, having accused it of breaching the existing agreements in what concerned the Strait of Hormuz. Later, the US administration actually signaled that it was ceasing the use of military force against Iran and was embarking on a path of its economic suffocation through tougher sanctions. However, US President Donald Trump said on October 10 that he doesn’t rule out further strikes against Iran.