Iran’s supreme leader told the country’s government Tuesday he was open to nuclear talks with the U.S., but that Iran should not “trust the enemy.”
“Don’t place your hopes in the enemy,” Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a post on the website X, reiterating what he said in a video message on his own website. “This doesn’t mean that one cannot interact with that same enemy in certain situations. But don’t place your hopes in the enemy, and don’t trust the enemy.”
Khamenei was filmed speaking to Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian’s newly appointed cabinet. Pezeshkian won a run-off election in July, campaigning as a reforming Tehran’s foreign policies, particularly pertaining to its nuclear program and the restart of talks with the U.S.
Pezeshkian’s cabinet includes Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s new foreign minister who was part of the negotiating team that produced the 2015 joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA), or the nuclear deal between Iran and other world powers, including the U.S. President Donald Trump (R) pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018.
Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Zavad Zarif, who was also instrumental in the 2015 nuclear deal, is not in the cabinet but was present at Khamenei’s speech according to Associated Press. The deal curbed Iranian uranium enrichment in return for relief from economic sanctions.
The JCPOA included provisions such as making Iran abide by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inspections and only enrich uranium up to 3.67% for the duration of the deal in exchange for sanctions relief from the U.S., the European Union, and the U.N.
As recently as June, however, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said that Iran is currently enriching uranium and expanding its nuclear program “in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose.”
While Pezeshkian refers to himself as a “reformist,” he still pledges loyalty to the supreme leader Khamenei. Iran, an Islamic republic, requires that all laws be based in Islam and that a clerical “supreme leader” vet all political leaders, including the president and his or her cabinet, according to the U.S. State Department.
While Pezeshkian and Khamenei said they are open to talks, the U.S is skeptical, according to a spokesperson from the State Department this month, given “the steps that Iran has taken to flagrantly flout the requirements of the IAEA,” and given the Middle Eastern country’s uranium enrichment at 60% purity, close to the required 90% purity for a nuclear weapon.
“We are going to judge, just as we always have, Iran’s leadership by their actions, not by their words or even claims of moderation or claims of wanting better ties,” the State spokesperson said in June. “The proof is in the pudding, and the proof is going to be reflected in the actions that they take.”