Araqchi: From the start, the US wanted zero enrichment in the negotiations.
The Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic said about the negotiations between Iran and the US that we put several operational plans on the negotiation table with the US, but the US wanted zero enrichment from us.
Abbas Araqchi, referring to past negotiations with United States representatives, told IRNA that the US’s demand from the beginning was that Iran should not have the capability to build nuclear weapons.
Some convinced them that as long as enrichment exists, this capability will always be present, and therefore their demand effectively became zero enrichment.
Araqchi emphasized that the Americans had this same demand from the first day and the first round of negotiations.
He stated that we had several operational plans to create a compromise between enrichment and not possessing weapons, and said, ‘I think there was a much stronger lobby in Washington that imposed this demand on the Americans.’
Otherwise, the Americans, or at least our negotiators, were ready to reach shortcut formulas.
