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Tehran is prepared to restart atomic discussions with Washington on condition that it is handled with "respect" and "honor", Iran's foreign minister has announced.

Abbas Araghchi said only diplomacy was effective, and disclosed new appeals had originated from mediators to resume discussions with the American leadership. He claimed Iran did not have secret atomic facilities, and Tehran could not yet permit the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit struck enrichment centers for protective measures.

Walking a Difficult Route

The foreign minister is treading a difficult path since Iran wishes not to be seen to be proceeding from a situation of vulnerability, and he insisted repeatedly that Iran had come out more resilient defensively and mentally from the Israeli-US attack on its enrichment centers in June.

He was speaking at a strategic meeting in Tehran where he reaffirmed that Iran had "an absolute privilege to process nuclear material on home soil that it will always maintain" – the key factor of the impasse in the earlier negotiations.

Prior Discussions Unexpectedly Concluded

The previous five rounds of discussions between the United States and Iran were concluded unexpectedly and acrimonious end on 12 June when Israel, with Washington's assistance, attacked Iranian nuclear sites in a fortnight-long engagement that ended with Donald Trump claiming the facilities had been obliterated. Afterward, Western states exercised their authority to reimpose global restrictions, but Iran maintains they have not had a significant effect.

Perfect Agreement Suggested

Iranian officials stated they felt they had achieved a "perfect agreement" to the enrichment issue in earlier negotiations, when it was decided an domestic cooperative with American involvement could enrich uranium. Each party would have been able to claim victory since local refinement would have remained and the US could be confident that Iran's nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful.

It had not been decided in the talks that American atomic experts could function within Iranian territory, but that was a logical implication of the cooperative offer. Officials asserted three times they had achieved a deal with the US representative Steve Witkoff only for the deal to collapse due to "opponents in the US".

Current Situation

Iran's diplomats said the cooperative arrangement was now off the table, but it seems highly likely the offer could be resurrected in certain ways if talks resume.

The US president recently claimed he had been obtaining communications that Iran wanted to restart talks, but privately Tehran representatives say they are not yet obtaining consistent overtures from the United States either explicitly or from important Middle Eastern intermediaries, such as Qatar, the Egyptian leadership, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The Tehran's diplomatic corps has been criticized of non-responsiveness in the wake of Trump's direct instinctive approach, but Iran says diplomacy is not part of a performance.

Political Stance

In his speech to the gathering, aimed to paint the US as a controlling nation that misuses the notion of global regulations, the foreign minister stated the fortnight-long engagement demonstrated the conflict could not be resolved by armed force. He stated the assaults began with a US demand for an total Iran submission and concluded with an absolute demand for a ceasefire.

Iran is convinced the initial Israeli attacks were carried out with full US knowledge and coordination, making confidence difficult to rebuild.

Dialogue Remains the Ultimate Resolution

The foreign minister stated: "Tehran was not the one that had fled negotiations; it was the United States and the European states that had repeatedly tried to dictate their will during the negotiations. Dialogue can still be alive and remains the primary answer to address conflicts, but its criteria, regulations and tenets must be followed."

"In case they speak to the citizens of Tehran with the language of respect and honor, they will obtain a reply in the identical approach."

Restoration and Recovery

In what is described by Tehran representatives as the struggle of recovery and reconstruction, the foreign minister said he was certain Iran's security strengths "have significantly improved than before 13 or 14 June of this year. Our entire military infrastructure have been reestablished. We learned multiple understandings from this war; we have discovered our own weaknesses and the weaknesses of the enemy."

He stated: "We successfully passed this engagement. Our enrichment knowledge, which they intended to obliterate, remains in place. The sites and machinery, if damaged, will be rebuilt; what is essential is the determination of the nation of Iran and then the national cohesion that they aimed at, but failed to destroy. The nation of Iran have grown more powerful, more integrated, and more backing of the administration and the state in the aftermath of this assault."