A senior Iranian diplomat said Thursday his country remains open to diplomacy provided the United States offers guarantees it will not resort to military action against the Islamic republic.
The remarks came as US news website Axios, citing two unidentified sources, reported that White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was planning to meet Iran's foreign minister and chief negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, in Oslo next week.
Neither Tehran nor Washington confirmed the Axios report, which said a final date for the talks has yet to be set.
"We are for diplomacy," Iran's deputy foreign minister, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, told NBC News, adding the United States should "convince us that they are not going to use military force while we are negotiating."
"That is an essential element for our leadership to be in a position to decide about the future round of talks," he added.
Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of nuclear talks since April 12 and were set to hold a new round two days before Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran on June 13.
The Israeli strikes targeted Iranian nuclear sites and killed several senior military officials and nuclear scientists.
On June 22, Israel's ally the United States launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
More than 900 people were killed in Iran during the conflict, according to the judiciary.
The Israeli attacks drew waves of retaliatory drone and missile fire, killing 28 people in Israel, according to authorities.
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel was agreed on June 24.
During the nuclear talks, which were stalled because of the fighting, Iran and the United States had been at sharp odds over Iran's uranium enrichment, which Tehran considers a "non-negotiable" right and which Washington has called a "red line".
Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium even after the 12-day war with Israel.
"Our policy has not changed on enrichment," Takht-Ravanchi told NBC News. "Iran has every right to do enrichment within its territory. The only thing that we have to observe is not to go for militarization."
With AFP
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