Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Saturday that Iran is not ready to resume face-to-face negotiations with the United States, citing Washington’s refusal to abandon “maximalist” demands on key issues. Speaking at a diplomacy forum in Antalya, Turkey, Khatibzadeh rejected a Trump administration proposal to secure Iran’s enriched uranium, saying “no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States.”
The breakdown in preliminary talks underscores the difficulty of narrowing differences on Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief, even as both countries conduct diplomatic exchanges. The impasse comes amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia that both sides claim to have interpreted differently.
Iran Sets Preconditions for Talks
Khatibzadeh said Iran remains ready to address U.S. concerns but will not accept what it regards as non-negotiable positions. “I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States,” he said. “This is non-starter and I can assure you that while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are nonstarters.”
His comments reflect the tension in negotiations following the recent Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire and a separate temporary truce between the U.S. and Iran. Both agreements have already proven fragile, with fundamental disagreements over which parties they actually cover.
The Uranium Extraction Deadlock
Trump’s demand that the U.S. extract approximately 970 pounds of enriched uranium from Iranian nuclear sites appears to be a central obstacle. The uranium is believed buried under nuclear facilities damaged by U.S. military strikes last year.
Khatibzadeh rejected the extraction proposal outright. Instead, he said Iran is seeking finalization of a “framework agreement” as a preliminary step before any in-person meeting between U.S. and Iranian negotiators.
Sanctions as Iran’s Core Demand
The Iranian official made clear that relief from U.S. penalties is non-negotiable. He described the sanctions as “illegal unilateral sanctions” that amount to “economic terrorism which has targeted Iranian people to suffocate them and make them to revolt against the political structure inside Iran.”
Khatibzadeh declined to specify which U.S. demands he considered maximalist or which issues remained unresolved in exchanges between the two sides.
The Strait of Hormuz and Ceasefire Disputes
The negotiations unfold against conflicting interpretations of recent ceasefires. Iran and Pakistan contended that the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire extended to Lebanon. The United States and Israel denied the agreement covered beyond direct Israel-Hezbollah combatants.
When Israel launched airstrikes on central Beirut—which Iran viewed as a violation of ceasefire terms—Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping corridor through which roughly one-third of global seaborne traded oil passes. Iran reopened the strait after a ceasefire in Lebanon took effect Friday.
Khatibzadeh said a “new protocol” governing Strait of Hormuz passage would be negotiated as part of any broader agreement with the United States, ensuring it would “remain open and safe for all civilian passage.”
Trump has stated that the U.S. blockade of the Strait will remain in place and that military attacks will resume if no agreement is reached with Iran.