Iran on Monday denied reports about a “temporary agreement” with the US, saying it is currently drafting positions to reach a nuclear deal with Washington.
According to the Turkish news agency Anadolu, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference in Tehran that the timing and mechanism of submitting the draft to the US side will be discussed and coordinated with the Omani mediator.
Iran and the US are set to reconvene in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to resume discussions for a potential nuclear deal, amid rising regional tensions and speculations of an imminent war.
Baghaei dismissed media reports about a “temporary agreement” between Tehran and Washington, saying the details of any negotiation process are “discussed and exchanged within the negotiating room.”
He said one of the signs of the seriousness of any negotiation is that all parties make “genuine and good-faith efforts” to reach a result, adding that drafting any document requires cooperation, participation, and assistance from all negotiating parties.
Iran will accept an agreement that ensures its “national rights and interests,” the spokesman said, adding that “no deviation toward militarization” has been observed in the country’s nuclear program over the past two decades.
He said Iran’s nuclear program has always been under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.
The fact that Iran is not seeking or moving toward nuclear weapons is “entirely verifiable,” he added.
The new round of talks in Geneva comes amid an unprecedented US military buildup in the Persian Gulf and a series of military drills by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in recent days.
US President Donald Trump has warned of military action against Iran if a deal is not reached within 10 to 15 days.
Amidst heightened tensions with the United States, Iran has repeatedly threatened to target U.S. military bases across the Middle East if attacked. Analysts told Forbes that Tehran may once again lash out at the neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan Region if war ultimately breaks out soon.
Forbes cites threats by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterating Iran’s longstanding threat on Sunday. “Our missiles cannot hit the American soil,” he said. “So obviously we have to do something else. We have to hit, you know, the Americans’ base in the region.”
“There would indeed be a good chance of Iran targeting the Kurdistan Region if a new war breaks out between Tehran and the U.S. and Israel,” Mohammed A. Salih, a non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Forbes. “We have seen Iran target the Kurdistan Region on multiple occasions over the past several years.”