Iran says it could survive if US nuclear talks end without a deal

DUBAI: Iran would be able to survive if negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme fail to secure a deal, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday, after President Donald Trump described weekend talks with Tehran as “very good”.

The negotiations aim to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and Trump has threatened Iran with crippling economic sanctions and bombing if no new nuclear agreement is reached.

“It’s not like we will die of hunger if they refuse to negotiate with us or impose sanctions,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by state media about the talks with Washington. “We will find a way to survive.”

The stakes are high for both sides in the talks. Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. Iran, for its part, maintains that its nuclear programme is exclusively for civilian purposes and wants to be rid of devastating sanctions on its oil-based economy.

Iranian and US delegations wrapped up a fifth round of talks in Rome last week and, while signs of some limited progress emerged, there are many points of disagreement that are hard to breach, notably the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment. Asked about reports that Iran could freeze enrichment for three years to reach an agreement, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told a press conference: “Iran will never accept that.”