A State Department spokesperson said in a press briefing last week that Iran must comply with International Atomic Energy Agency rules again to re-enter nuclear talks with the U.S.
The spokesperson was responding to a reporter’s question July 23 about comments on entering nuclear talks with Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian, a self-identified “reformist” who defeated a conservative opponent in a run-off election after the previous president, Ebrahim Raisi, died in a helicopter crash this May.
“So we have long made clear that we support diplomacy,” the spokesperson said, calling it the “chief route” for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, “but we’re a long way from that right now, especially when you see the steps that Iran has taken to flagrantly flout the requirements of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency].”
The IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has said in May that the agency has not been inspecting Iran’s expanding nuclear program at the visibility levels he wants, and that Iran is enriching uranium at 60% purity, close to required purity of 90% for nuclear weapons.
Pezeshkian ran on the campaign of changing foreign policy and restarting nuclear negotiations with the United States again. Like all Iranian leaders, Pezeshkian pledged his loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the senior Iranian cleric who the State Department spokesperson said ultimately makes decisions in Tehran.
“We have not made any assessment that Iran is yet changing its overall strategic approach to these issue[s],” the spokesperson said.