Iran Denies Seeking Meeting with US Amid Nuclear Talks Stal

The Iranian government said on Tuesday that it has not sought any meeting with the United States to resume negotiations that were interrupted by the 12-day war, in which Israel and US forces attacked its nuclear facilities.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said that no request for a meeting has been submitted to the US side from them, according to the state-owned IRNA agency. The statement comes after US President Donald Trump said on Monday that fresh talks have been scheduled between Washington and Tehran. "They want to meet. They want to work something out.

They are very different now than they were two weeks ago," Trump told reporters at the White House. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who was with him, said that these talks could begin as early as next week. Iran and the US held five rounds of indirect talks from Apr. 12, which were mediated by Oman and held in Muscat and Rome, to negotiate an agreement on Iran's nuclear program.

The meetings took place amid sharp divergences between Washington's demands for the complete shutdown of Iran's nuclear program and Tehran's insistence on continuing its civilian nuclear program. The talks broke off with Israel carrying out sudden attacks on Iran in the early morning of Jun. 13. The US joined the offensive on Jun. 22, bombing the nuclear facilities of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, after which the parties agreed to a ceasefire that ended a war.