UN chief calls for resumption of Iran-US talks

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on Iran and the United States to resume negotiations toward a durable settlement to the conflict, his spokesman said.

Asked at a briefing about the UN chief’s message as the 60-day deadline for a negotiated final deal under the June 17 Iran-US memorandum of understanding (MoU) expired on Monday, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, said that Guterres wants negotiations to resume, reports Xinhua news agency.

“His message is the same, which he’s been delivering since the start, which is there is no military solution to this conflict,” said Dujarric.

“He urges the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States to resume negotiations toward a peaceful and durable settlement as soon as possible, to avoid military action and as well to lower the rhetoric that we’ve been hearing in recent days.”

In the MoU, the United States and Iran committed themselves “to negotiating and achieving the final deal in maximum 60 days, extendable with mutual consent.”

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that Tehran wants to reach an agreement with Washington but is unwilling to accept the kind of deal he considers necessary, as a 60-day negotiating period between the two sides came to an end.

“They want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday (US local time).

Trump offered no details on the state of the negotiations, reiterating that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remained Washington’s objective.

“You understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. They can’t have a nuclear war.”

Trump also claimed that the United States had “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz through its naval blockade against all Iranian ports, repeatedly musing about making it a territory of the United States.

“We control it (the strait) with the blockade. And I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” Trump said. “We have total control over the Strait now.”

As for his earlier warning against Oman, which is reported to be working with Iran on a plan to open the strait and keep the waterway under the control of the two nations, Trump said: “I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily, just like we do others.”

IANS