Emirati diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash will deliver Trump’s letter intended for Iran’s leadership [Getty/file photo]
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE’s president, has handed over a letter from US President Donald Trump to Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Fars media said on Wednesday.
Earlier, Araghchi said in televised remarks that “an Arab country” will deliver Trump’s letter to Iran’s clerical establishment
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, after Trump said he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal.
Trump exited a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018 by re-imposing sanctions on Tehran, which retaliated by moving away from its nuclear-related commitments a year later.
Reacting to Wednesday’s closed doors UN Security Council meeting over Iran’s nuclear programme, Araghchi said the gathering was a “new and bizarre process that puts into question the goodwill of states requesting it”.
The meeting was requested by six of the council’s 15 members – France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain and the US, over Iran’s expansion of its stock of close to weapons-grade uranium.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned.
Talks between Tehran and the remaining members of the 2015 nuclear pact have gained momentum as Iran’s nuclear programme remains an important global issue.
Araghchi said that Iran would soon have a fifth round of talks with the European powers forming part of the nuclear deal – France, Britain and Germany – and confirmed a meeting in Beijing on Friday with the other members, Russia and China.
