‘No point’ in negotiating over zero enrichment, Iranian lawmaker says

Published April 30, 2026 Updated April 30, 2026 01:35pm

Iranian MP Manouchehr Mottaki has said that if Iran had known early on that the US was seeking zero uranium enrichment, it would have shifted strategies, according to Al Jazeera.

“I have no objection to going to the negotiating table, but we should have looked more closely at how to proceed,” Mottaki, who represents Tehran and previously served as foreign minister, told Iran’s ISNA.

After the first round of talks, Mottaki said, “Trump started whispering outside about zero enrichment”, while US Ambassador to Nato Matt Whitaker did not “dare” mention it.

“If we had concluded that their final opinion was non-enrichment, naturally there would have been no point in negotiating with them, because this issue is fundamentally not related to America,” Mottaki added.

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