Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that Iran will not negotiate under “intimidation” as he held crunch talks with the UN nuclear chief weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said achieving “results” in nuclear talks with Iran was vital to avoid a new conflict in the region already inflamed by Israel’s operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

His visit comes just days after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran was “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities” giving Israel “the opportunity to achieve our most important goal”.

Grossi said Iranian nuclear installations “should not be attacked” but Trump is expected to give Israel a far freer rein after he takes office in January. The IAEA chief described his meeting with Araghchi as “indispensable” in a post on X.

Araghchi was Iran’s chief negotiator in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, abandoned three years later by Trump.

Araghchi posted that their meeting was “important & straightforward”. He said Iran was “willing to negotiate” based on the “national interest” and “inalienable rights,” but was not “ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation”.

“We agreed to proceed with courage and goodwill. Iran has never left the negotiation table on its peaceful nuclear programme,” he said. Grossi also met the head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Eslami.

Eslami told a joint news conference that Iran would take “immediate countermeasures” against any sanctions from the IAEA’s board of governors. “Any interventionist resolution in the nuclear affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely be met with immediate countermeasures,” Eslami said.

Grossi’s visit is his second to Tehran this year but his first since Trump’s re-election.

During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump adopted a policy called “maximum pressure” which reimposed sweeping US economic sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 deal.

Search for solutions

In response, Iran started to gradually roll back its commitments under the deal, which barred it from enriching uranium to above 3.65 per cent.

The IAEA says Iran has significantly expanded its stocks of uranium enriched to 60pc, a level that has triggered international alarm as it is much closer to the 90pc level needed for a nuclear warhead.

Iran has blamed the incoming US president for the standoff. “The one who left the agreement was not Iran, it was America,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Wednesday. “Mr Trump once tried the path of maximum pressure and saw that this path did not work.”

Trump’s looming return to the White House in January has only added to international fears of an all-out conflict between Israel and Iran after the archfoes exchanged unprecedented direct attacks earlier this year.

“The margins for manoeuvre are beginning to shrink,” Grossi warned in an interview with AFP on Tuesday, adding that “it is imperative to find ways to reach diplomatic solutions”.

Iran on Tuesday warned that it will “certainly” respond to Israel’s latest attack in a “well-measured” and “well-calculated” manner.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad on Monday for a two-day official visit that includes consultations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

During today’s joint press briefing with Dar, Araghchi said, “Iran will certainly respond to the Oct 26 Israeli attack on appropriate time and manner, and in a well-measured and well-calculated way.”

Late last month, the Israeli military had launched strikes on military bases in Iran, targeting about 20 sites over several hours across Ilam, Khuzestan, and Tehran. Tel Aviv said the strikes were in response to attacks from “Iran and its proxies.”

Araghchi emphasised that Iran reserves its “inherent” right to “legitimately” respond to Israeli strikes in line with the United Nations charter.

He accused the “Zionist regime” of spreading terrorism from Gaza to Lebanon, adding that the international community has failed to halt Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians.

Sharing a similar stance, Dar reiterated the two countries’ call for establishing an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Calling the Israeli strikes a violation of Iran’s sovereignty and international law, Dar affirmed solidarity with the Iranian people.

He said, “We reject the propensity by occupying powers to equate the right of self-determination with terrorism, which is nothing but a ploy to prolong their occupation and apartheid policies,” according to APP.

“The long-standing Palestinian issue and the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, which are based on the denial of the right to self-determination, must be addressed through peaceful means, fully respecting the rights and aspirations of the affected populations, in line with relevant UN resolutions and the UN Charter.”

Joint strategy

Araghchi said the two nations are working on a joint strategy to present at the upcoming Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Tehran, aiming to address the ongoing Israeli aggression.

The two sides also agreed to collaborate in countering terrorism, which Araghchi described as a “common threat” to both nations.

He praised Islamabad’s “consistent” support for Gaza and the Palestinian cause.

Earlier, Dar received Araghchi and his delegation at the Foreign Ministry, where both ministers underscored the importance of strengthening ties through increased trade, energy cooperation, and enhanced border management, according to a statement by the Foreign Office.

They expressed commitment to exploring avenues for enhanced trade, investment, and people-to-people contacts.

Both officials also discussed the Middle East situation, “strongly” condemning the Israeli aggression against Palestinians and affirming their support for the Palestinian right to self-determination.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Saturday held a telephone call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in which they expressed their “deep commitment and support for the people of Palestine and Lebanon”.

A post on X by the Foreign Office said the two diplomats discussed the situation in the two conflict-ridden countries subject to an Israeli military offensive.

The Saudi Press Agency said both also reviewed relations between the two countries and discussed regional and international developments

Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians since it began a year ago and has laid waste to the enclave.

The offensive began after a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Meanwhile, Israel’s latest fight with Hezbollah started when the group fired missiles at Israeli positions immediately after the Oct 7 attack. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire ever since.

As months of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas went nowhere, Israel in September began ramping up its bombardment of Hezbollah and landed painful blows on the group, including remotely detonating Hezbollah pagers and radios, wounding thousands of the group’s members.

After Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s death, US President Joe Biden called again for a ceasefire along the Israel-Lebanon border.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched its ground invasion anyway.

Its expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to Lebanon’s government, which says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting. The toll includes scores of women and children.

Separately, a statement from the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued today said the seventh meeting of the Pakistan-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Bilateral Defence Industrial Forum was held in Riyadh on Thursday.

Pakistan’s tri-services delegation was led by Chief of General Staff (CGS), Lieutenant General Muhammad Avais Dastgir, whereas, Assistant Defence Minister Talal Bin Abdullah Al Otaibi led the Saudi Arabian side.

During the meeting, the CGS affirmed Pakistan’s continuing support towards the capacity building of the Royal Saudi Defence Forces.

The Saudi dignitary acknowledged Pakistan’s achievements and sacrifices in the war against terrorism and its valuable contributions towards regional peace and stability.

The forum’s participants discussed challenges to global and regional security and their implications for the Defence Forces.

They noted that rapid advancements in modern technologies necessitated further enhancing defence industrial cooperation in critical capabilities between the two allied countries.

In this context, the ISPR said that the progress of ongoing areas of collaboration was reviewed while new areas of collaboration were also agreed upon.