Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday blamed the United States for the failure of peace talks in Pakistan, after arriving in Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
“The US approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to fail to reach its goals because of the excessive demands,” Araghchi was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
He also said that “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is an important global issue”, as the US and Iran continue their rival blockades in the waterway.
Araghchi said “After 40 days of heroic resistance by the Iranian people, we must obtain the rights of the Iranian people and secure the country’s interests” in negotiations.
He also said the US’ wrong approaches and excessive demands had prevented the first Islamabad round from reaching its goals despite progress.
Araghchi said his talks in Islamabad had been “very productive” and described what went wrong in the first round. “In the negotiation process, developments occurred, and the US’s wrong approaches and excessive demands caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to be unable to reach its goals. It was therefore necessary to consult and review the current situation with our friends in Pakistan,” he said.
He said the visit to Pakistan involved reviewing what had happened and discussing “under what conditions and circumstances negotiations can continue.”
Araghchi framed the negotiations in terms of wartime sacrifice. “After 40 days of heroic resistance by the Iranian people, we must obtain the rights of the Iranian people and secure the country’s interests in the negotiations,” he noted.
Araghchi said his visit to Oman was driven by the shared responsibility that Iran and Oman bear as two states with coastlines along the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran and Oman are two littoral states of the Strait of Hormuz, and particularly given that safe transit through the strait has become an important global issue, we need to be in consultation with each other,” he said.
He said there was significant agreement between Iran and Oman on the Hormuz issue and that talks would continue at an expert level.
Araghchi said consultations with Moscow were a natural continuation of the close Iran-Russia coordination on regional and bilateral matters that had been interrupted by the war.
“As you can see, we have always had close consultations with Russia on a wide range of issues, especially regional matters. Due to the imposed Ramadan war, there had been a gap in our meetings. We used this opportunity and following my trips to Pakistan and Oman, a visit to Russia was also arranged, so that we could review the war-related developments and the current situation with our Russian friends,” he said.
