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Iran is willing to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States as long as it is treated with "dignity" and "respect", Tehran's foreign minister has stated.

The Iranian diplomat said only diplomacy produced results, and disclosed new appeals had come from mediators to restart negotiations with the US government. He said Iran did not have secret atomic facilities, and Iran could not yet authorize the global atomic watchdog to inspect bombed nuclear sites for security reasons.

Navigating a Difficult Route

Araghchi is walking a complex course since Iran wishes not to appear to be proceeding from a situation of vulnerability, and he emphatically stated that Iran had come out more powerful in military terms and psychologically from the joint assault on its nuclear sites in June.

He was addressing at a security conference in Tehran where he reaffirmed that Iran had "an absolute privilege to enrich uranium on home soil that it will always maintain" – the primary cause of the stalemate in the earlier negotiations.

Earlier Negotiations Unexpectedly Concluded

The prior phases of negotiations between the US and Iran were brought to an abrupt and bitter end on 12 June when the Israeli government, with US support, targeted Tehran's atomic facilities in a fortnight-long engagement that concluded with the US president asserting the facilities had been obliterated. Afterward, Western states employed their authority to reinstate UN-wide sanctions, but Iran insists they have not had a major impact.

Perfect Agreement Proposed

Tehran representatives claimed they felt they had reached a "magic solution" to the nuclear fuel concern in previous talks, when it was agreed an domestic cooperative with US participation could process nuclear material. Each party would have been able to declare success since domestic enrichment would have remained and the US could be certain that Iran's atomic project was entirely non-military.

It had not been agreed in the talks that Washington's technical specialists could work inside Iran, but that was a reasonable assumption of the cooperative offer. Representatives claimed three times they had reached agreement with Washington's diplomat the US official only for the deal to disintegrate due to "opponents in the US".

Present Situation

Iran's diplomats said the consortium offer was now off the table, but it seems very probable the suggestion could be reintroduced in certain ways if talks restart.

The US president recently claimed he had been getting signals that Iran wanted to resume discussions, but in private Iran's diplomats claim they are not yet getting coherent offers from Washington either explicitly or from important Middle Eastern intermediaries, such as Qatar, the Egyptian leadership, Oman and the Saudi kingdom. The Iranian foreign ministry has been accused of passivity in the face of Washington's unmediated tactics, but Tehran says dialogue is not part of a show.

Diplomatic Position

In his remarks to the forum, designed to depict the US as a hegemonic power that exploits the notion of worldwide standards, Araghchi declared the 12-day war demonstrated the conflict could not be settled by armed force. He said the strikes started with a Washington's ultimatum for an complete Tehran capitulation and culminated with an complete request for a halt to hostilities.

Iran is certain the first strikes by Israel were carried out with full US knowledge and coordination, making faith hard to restore.

Diplomacy Stays the Final Answer

The foreign minister stated: "It was not Iran that had abandoned diplomacy; it was America and the Western nations that had repeatedly tried to enforce their demands during the talks. Dialogue can still be alive and remains the final answer to settle conflicts, but its requirements, regulations and tenets must be adhered to."

"In case they talk to the citizens of Tehran with the approach of dignity and honor, they will obtain a answer in the same language."

Repair and Rebuilding

In what is described by Tehran representatives as the conflict of repair and reconstruction, the foreign minister stated he was confident Iran's military capacities "are much stronger than preceding 13 or 14 June of this year. Every aspect of our defense have been rebuilt. We learned multiple understandings from this conflict; we have discovered our personal limitations and the vulnerabilities of the enemy."

He added: "We effectively endured this engagement. Our nuclear technology, which they intended to obliterate, remains in place. The facilities and machinery, if eliminated, will be reconstructed; what is important is the will of the citizens of Tehran and then the unity of the country that they aimed at, but failed to shatter. The nation of Iran have developed more resilient, more united, and more endorsing of the administration and the state in the wake of this invasion."