Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tells CNN that he believes Tehran can achieve a deal with the United States on the country’s nuclear program.
Tehran’s top diplomat says he is “confident that we can achieve a deal” on the program, which the US and Israel say aims to build nuclear weapons.
“Unfortunately, we have lost our trust [in] the US as a negotiating partner,” Araghchi tells the US network, while touting “fruitful” talks being mediated by mutual partners.
Aragchi described the current exchanges as “fruitful” and said they could prepare the ground for substantive talks.
He stressed that the focus should be on the “substance” rather than the format of negotiations, downplaying whether contacts are direct or indirect.
Referring to US President Donald Trump’s stated goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Araghchi said Tehran agrees with that objective.
Aragchi dismissed expanding talks to include Iran’s ballistic missile program or regional allied groups, saying negotiators should not pursue “impossible things.”
On the prospect of war with the US, he said a conflict would be “a disaster for everybody.” Because US military bases are spread across the region, he said, fighting would inevitably draw in multiple countries.
Aragchi said Iran had drawn lessons from its previous conflict with Israel and had tested its missile capabilities in real combat, improving its understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.
