A senior advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accused the U.S. administration of “psychological warfare” in its policies toward the Islamic Republic on Thursday, but declared Tehran was prepared to explore diplomatic talks with Washington on a renewed nuclear deal.
Tehran “has not closed all doors,” said Kamal Kharrazi, a former foreign minister who heads the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations. “It is ready for indirect talks with the United States to evaluate the other side, present its conditions and make the appropriate decision.”
However, the veteran diplomat stated: “What is seen today in American officials’ behavior is psychological warfare, or the policy of ‘either war or negotiations’ through sending contradictory messages.
“The American strategy is an invitation to dialogue under the shadow of the intensification of economic sanctions and military threats to press Iran to give in to a dialogue,” Kharrazi said, according to remarks printed by the Tehran Times newspaper, which is close to the regime.
“The result of such a strategy is nothing other than imposing the will of one side on the other by intimidation and threat,” he added.
During his first term in 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Tehran and stepped up sanctions on the regime. The deal offered sanctions relief in exchange for a promise to dial back its nuclear activity for 10 years.
The Islamic Republic has since significantly increased its stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium, enough to build six nuclear bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog.
Earlier this month, Trump revealed that he sent a letter to Khamenei, urging him to negotiate a renewed nuclear deal, or face military action.
“I said, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,’” Trump stated in an interview with the Fox Business Network channel on March 7. He added, “The other alternative is you have to do something, because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Israel has also said that a “reliable military option” is required to deter Tehran from taking the final steps toward acquiring nuclear weapons.
Kharrazi last year said that Tehran had the technical capability to build nuclear weapons, but was only held back by a religious decree banning them. He warned an “existential threat” could prompt a policy change.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the opening of what regime media described as a novel underground “missile city,” showcasing projectiles that could potentially be used in attacks on Israel and U.S. military assets in the Middle East.
The unveiling featured senior military officials, including the chief of Iran’s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, as well as Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace division.
The IRGC previously released footage of similar underground facilities, prompting speculation that the newly publicized missile silo may be an older site repurposed for a media campaign amid tensions with the Trump administration, according to a report in the London-based Iran International, an English-language opposition news outlet.
