In an interview with khabaronline.ir, the foreign minister said ongoing negotiations between Iran and the three European countries of France, Germany, and Britain were essentially indirect talks with the United States.

“To say that, as a strategy, we will not negotiate… that’s not how it is. We have negotiated many times [before], including very recently. Our ongoing talks with the three European countries are, in fact, something of an indirect negotiation over our nuclear program,” Araqchi said in the interview, which was published on Sunday.

“The format of negotiations is always relevant in diplomatic relations, whether the two sides talk directly or indirectly. For now, our tactic and method is to have indirect negotiations,” he added.

‘Until some things change’

Araqchi referred to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s rejection of talks with the United States under pressure and given Washington’s past perfidy, and said the policy was sensible.

“In circumstances where there is ‘maximum pressure,’ no one in their sound mind would enter into direct talks,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on February 4 signed a presidential memo to restore “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic, despite his assertions that he is willing to engage Tehran diplomatically.

On March 12, Trump sent a letter to Iran via an emissary from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While the content of the letter has not been officially announced, Trump has said he has asked Iran that negotiations be opened into a new deal.

Ayatollah Khamenei has reiterated that Iran will not negotiate with the United States because Tehran does not trust that Washington would adhere to any contractual obligations.

Araqchi was asked in the interview how he would respond to a potential expectation on the part of the Iranian public that the government enter into direct negotiations with the United States. The foreign minister said that Tehran’s refusal was based on historical experience and expert analysis, “not obstinacy.”

“As an expert and a negotiator and a diplomat, I say that under the current conditions [of ‘maximum pressure’], you can no more enter into talks with America, unless some things change,” he said.

Araqchi, who was among Iran’s chief negotiators in talks that led to a deal in 2015, said he believed the agreement was impossible to revive as it stood.

“The JCPOA, in its current form, cannot be revived in my opinion,” he said, using an abbreviation to refer to the Iran deal. “[Reviving it] is not in our interest either, because our nuclear status has by far advanced and we can no more return to the JCPOA conditions. So have the sanctions by the other party. They have set many new sanctions and the conditions have changed.”

He added that the incumbent U.S. administration was the one that withdrew from the original agreement, in 2018, and that was opposed to it. “To want to revive the JCPOA would not be a realistic thing.”

But, he said, the Iran deal could serve as a model for any potential agreement in the future.

“Our nuclear program is entirely peaceful; we ourselves trust that. We are ready to raise others’ trust, to agree to certain restrictions on our stockpiles and enrichment purity levels for five or ten years, as we did under the JCPOA,” he said.