Iran open to direct talks with US if it shows no hostility: President

Pezeshkian says govt did not transfer weapons to Russia since he took office; also denies sending missiles to Houthis

TEHRAN:

Iran could hold direct talks with the United States if Washington demonstrates "in practice" that it is not hostile to the Islamic Republic, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday.

Pezeshkian was responding to a question at a news conference in Tehran on whether Tehran would be open to direct talks with the US to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

Former US president Donald Trump reneged on that deal in 2018, arguing it was too generous to Tehran, and restored harsh US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to gradually violate the agreement's nuclear limits.

"We are not hostile towards the US, they should end their hostility towards us by showing their goodwill in practice," said Pezeshkian, adding: "We are brothers with the Americans as well."

After taking office in January 2021, US President Joe Biden tried to negotiate a revival of the nuclear pact under which Iran had restricted its nuclear programme in return for relief from US, European Union and UN sanctions.

However, Tehran refused to directly negotiate with Washington and worked mainly through European or Arab intermediaries.

Moreover, President Pezeshkian said that his government had not transferred any weapons to Russia since it took office in August, after Western powers accused Tehran of delivering ballistic missiles to Moscow in September.

The United States and its allies accused Iran last week of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, imposing fresh sanctions on Moscow and Tehran. Russia and Iran both denied the Western claims.

Asked whether Iran had transferred missiles to Russia, Pezeshkian told a televised news conference: "It is possible that a delivery took place in the past... but I can assure you that since I took office, there has not been any such delivery to Russia."

Furthermore, he said Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen's Houthis, a day after the Iran-backed group said a missile it fired at Israel was a hypersonic one.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on the Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.

"It takes a person a week to travel to Yemen (from Iran), how could this missile have gotten there? We don't have such missiles to provide to Yemen," Pezeshkian said.

However, last year Iran presented what it described as Tehran's first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile, with state media publishing pictures of the missile named "Fattah" at a ceremony.