Khamenei opens door to negotiations with US over Iran's nuclear programme

Iran's supreme leader opened the door to renewed negotiations with the United States over his country's rapidly advancing nuclear programme, telling the government there was “no barrier" to engaging with its “enemy.”

Ali Khamenei's remarks on Tuesday set clear red lines for any talks taking place under the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian and renewed his warnings that Washington wasn't to be trusted.

But his comments mirror those around the time of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran's nuclear programme greatly curtailed in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Yet it remains unclear just how much room Pezeshkian will have to manoeuvre, particularly as tensions remain high in the wider Middle East over the Israel's war on Gaza and as the US prepares for a presidential election in November.

“We do not have to pin our hope to the enemy. For our plans, we should not wait for approval by the enemies," Khamenei said in a video broadcast by state television. “It is not contradictory to engage the same enemy in some places, there's no barrier.”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, also warned Pezeshkian's Cabinet, “Do not trust the enemy.”

Khamenei, 85, has occasionally urged talks or dismissed them with Washington after then president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018.

The US State Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment over Khamenei's remarks.

There have been indirect talks between Iran and the US in recent years mediated by Oman and Qatar, two of the United States' Middle East interlocutors when it comes to Iran.

Since the deal's collapse, Iran has abandoned all limits that the deal put on its program, and enriches uranium to up to 60 percent purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent.

Surveillance cameras installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency have been disrupted, while Iran has barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors. Iranian officials also have increasingly threatened that they could pursue atomic weapons.

Regional tensions

Meanwhile, tensions between Iran and Israel have hit a new high during the Israeli war in Gaza. Tehran launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel in April after years of a shadow war between the two countries reached a climax with Israel’s apparent attack on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and others.

The assassination in Tehran of former Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh also prompted Iran to threaten to retaliate against Israel.

Pezeshkian, a former lawmaker who won the presidency after a May helicopter crash killed former President Ebrahim Raisi, campaigned in part on a promise to reengage the West with negotiations. Pezeshkian's new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was deeply involved in negotiations on the 2015 deal.