Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Iran&rsquo;s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi on Tuesday rejected reports of contacting senior US envoy Steve Witkoff, according to Iran&rsquo;s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.&nbsp;The denial follows reports by Axios and other outlets reporting that Aragchi had attempted to directly communicate with Steve Witkoff, with messages reportedly focused on ending the ongoing conflict.&nbsp;&ldquo;My last contact with Mr. Witkoff was prior to his employer&rsquo;s decision to kill diplomacy with another illegal military attack on Iran,&rdquo; the minister said in a post on X.&nbsp;&ldquo;Any claim to the contrary appears geared solely to mislead oil traders and the public,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp;The reports suggested a possible backchannel between Washington and Tehran, since US, &nbsp;Israel carried out airstrikes against Iran almost 3 weeks ago.&nbsp;US President Donald Trump, on multiple occasions, suggested that Iran wanted a deal for a ceasefire.&nbsp;&ldquo;They want to make a deal. They are talking to our people&hellip; we have people wanting to negotiate, [but] we have no idea who they are,&rdquo; Trump told reporters earlier.&nbsp;Iranian officials have maintained publicly that no ceasefire negotiations are underway

Central Asia

Americas

Iran denies reports of renewed contact with a US envoy, rejecting claims of backchannel talks with Donald Trump’s administration and insisting no ceasefire negotiations are underway amid escalating conflict.

Iran denies contact with US envoy

WASHINGTON: US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not &quot;capitulated&quot; in the face of Washington&#39;s military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal. The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-aircraft-carrier-enters-mediterranean-as-trump-mulls-iran-strikes" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">aircraft carriers</a>, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings. In a Fox News interview with Trump&#39;s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was &quot;curious&quot; about Iran&#39;s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s curious&rsquo;&nbsp;&quot;I don&#39;t want to use the word &#39;frustrated,&#39; because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he&#39;s curious as to why they haven&#39;t... I don&#39;t want to use the word &#39;capitulated,&#39; but why they haven&#39;t capitulated,&quot; he said. &quot;Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven&#39;t they come to us and said, &#39;We profess we don&#39;t want a weapon, so here&#39;s what we&#39;re prepared to do&#39;? And yet it&#39;s sort of hard to get them to that place.&quot; Meeting with Reza Pahlavi&nbsp;The US envoy also confirmed in the interview that he had met with Reza Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy. &quot;I met him at the direction of the president,&quot; he said, without providing further details. US-based Pahlavi last week told a crowd in Munich that he was ready to lead the country to a &quot;secular democratic future&quot; after Trump said regime change would be best for the country. Draft proposal for agreement&nbsp; Witkoff&#39;s comments come after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/iran-to-submit-draft-nuclear-proposal-as-us-military-presence-grows" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">draft proposal</a> for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days. Trump said on Thursday that Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal on concerns starting with its nuclear program. As talks between the two nations continued in Geneva, Iran&#39;s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic. Sanctions &nbsp;Western countries accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, though it insists on its right to enrichment for civilian purposes. Iran, for its part, is seeking to negotiate an end to sanctions that have proven to be a massive drag on its economy, which played a role in sparking anti-government protests in December.

Middle East

The US and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings.

Articles tagged with "US envoy Steve Witkoff"

Iran denies contact with US envoy

US envoy says Trump questioning why Iran has not 'capitulated'