Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has described the extreme pressure surrounding Tehran’s negotiating team during nuclear talks with the United States, saying repeated military threats from Washington and Israel created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty for Iranian officials involved in diplomacy.
In an interview with the Mehr News Agency, Araghchi, who has played a leading role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations, recalled a conversation with US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, in which he highlighted the psychological strain faced by Iranian negotiators.
Araghchi said he directly questioned Witkoff about whether he had ever experienced negotiations while fearing that an attack could happen at any moment.
“I asked Witkoff, have you ever been in a meeting where at any moment you think the whole meeting might be bombed? Have you ever been on the phone while you’re talking You might, as they say, explode or be destroyed. Have you ever, for example, while checking in on your family over the phone, thought to yourself this might be the last time?” Araghchi said.
The Iranian foreign minister claimed that Tehran remained firm despite what he described as sustained intimidation and pressure.
“In response to the illegal and unreasonable demand for zero enrichment, we resisted and stood firm. When they saw that they couldn’t achieve what they wanted through negotiations, they started the war,” Araghchi said, in remarks also reported by RT News.
He further outlined Iran’s negotiating position, stating: “You have to talk. You can’t threaten us, and you can’t bribe us.”
According to Araghchi, Washington initiated contact with Tehran last year in an effort to revive nuclear discussions, with communication continuing intermittently through diplomatic channels.
He claimed that Iran’s refusal to compromise on key issues eventually pushed the US and Israel toward military action.
“They were defeated in the 12-day war,” Araghchi said, adding that threats of military escalation had failed to pressure Iran’s leadership into changing course.
The Iranian diplomat also rejected claims that increased military pressure could force Tehran to surrender.
Drawing comparisons with Venezuela, where a US military operation in January led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and a political upheaval, Araghchi argued that Iran’s governing system is structured differently and cannot be dismantled by targeting a single individual.
“This isn’t Venezuela where you take one person and everyone else gets scared and backs down,” he said, describing Iran’s political system as a distributed structure with multiple centres of authority operating under a unified framework.
The full-scale war with Iran was resumed on July 7, as outlined by President Donald Trump in a letter sent to Congress. Three US troops were killed in separate operations in Jordan and Iraq in a week and the United States intensified its military campaign against Iran by launching a ninth consecutive night of airstrikes, even as the conflict spread across the Gulf and claimed another American service member.
A drone of the MQ‑9 type was tracked and downed in the skies over Eslamabad‑e Gharb, the IRGC announced in a statement late on Sunday.
The MQ‑9 drone was shot down by the Aerospace Force’s advanced air‑defense system, operating under the country’s integrated air‑defense network.
Earlier, Iran’s Army Air Defense Force had successfully intercepted and destroyed an American MQ-9 aggressor drone and a US cruise missile in the western region of the country, the military announced on Sunday.
As the fragile ceasefire MoU between Washington and Tehran has collapsed, Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would only consider negotiations after achieving a favourable military position.
“The end of the war is possible either through absolute military victory or through negotiations. The right time to negotiate is precisely when you have achieved a reliable field and strategic achievement on the military front,” Araghchi told state news agency IRNA.
“You cannot take risks with the lives of the people and the fate of the entire country. Decisions must be made based on accurate and complete calculations,” he said.
Araghchi also maintained that despite the damage inflicted during the conflict, “we emerged as a decisive international player in this war and demonstrated the strength of the system.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that American missile strikes hit several Iranian cities early Monday, including Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini.
Separately, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced a retaliatory operation targeting what it described as “the enemy’s special operations headquarters in Syria’s Al-Tanf area.”
