Iran hasn’t asked for nuclear negotiations with the United States to resume, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday, disputing U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks that a new round of talks is scheduled to be held soon.
During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, President Trump said “We have scheduled Iran talks, and they … want to talk. They took a big drubbing.”
The U.S. President also said he would like to be able to lift the sanctions on Iran, at the right time.
“I would love to be able to, at the right time, take those sanctions off,” President Trump said.
Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, said a meeting would take place in the next week or so.
Iran, however, denies there is a meeting in the works.
“No request for a meeting has been made to the American side from our side,” Iranian media quoted Baghaei as saying on Tuesday.
Indirect U.S.-Iran talks on the Iranian nuclear program were held a few weeks ago, before being abruptly abandoned during the 12-day Israel-Iran war. Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites and killed military leaders in coordinated strikes on June 13. Iran retaliated with missiles launched at Israeli cities, and the oil market added about a $10 per barrel war premium in the middle of June amid fears that the escalating hostilities could lead to disruption of oil and gas supply from the Middle East.
The escalation ended after the U.S. bombed three of Iran’s nuclear sites – Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – and warned the Islamic Republic that retaliation against U.S. troops in the region or any other retaliation would be the worst mistake it will make.
Days after the strike, President Trump announced a ceasefire, which calmed the energy commodity markets and brought prices back down to pre-conflict levels. The market didn’t see any disruption to supply, but investors and speculators remain wary of the heightened geopolitics-driven volatility.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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