President Pezeshkian: Iran Ready for Nuclear Talks if US Lifts Sanctions

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran is prepared to return to nuclear negotiations with Washington, but only if the United States lifts its sanctions regime and halts the diplomatic pressure campaign it has waged against Iran. The remarks position Pezeshkian's government as open to diplomacy while placing the burden of a first move squarely on the US side.

Pezeshkian took office in July 2024 following a snap election called after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash. Since then, his administration, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi leading the file, has engaged in on-and-off, largely Oman-mediated contacts with Washington over Iran's nuclear program, the successor track to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that the first Trump administration abandoned in 2018 before reimposing sweeping sanctions on Iran's oil exports, banking sector and shipping industry.

Those sanctions, compounded by a broader Western "maximum pressure" strategy, have battered Iran's currency and economy, giving Tehran strong incentive to seek relief even as it insists it will not negotiate under duress. Tensions escalated further after Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites plunged the two countries into direct conflict, hardening Iranian distrust of Western intentions and complicating any resumption of talks.

For Qatar and the wider Gulf, a genuine de-escalation track matters directly: Doha shares the offshore North Field/South Pars gas reservoir with Iran, and Gulf states have repeatedly warned that a wider Iran-Israel or Iran-US confrontation risks disrupting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for regional energy exports. Qatari officials, including Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, have previously offered to help facilitate indirect US-Iran communication, mirroring Doha's mediating role in other regional files. Pezeshkian's conditional offer keeps the door to talks open without committing Iran to concessions before sanctions relief is on the table.