Shortly before talks between Tehran and Washington on Iran’s nuclear programme, the Iranian president has surprisingly left the door open to US investment in the country.
“I see the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] several times a week. He has no objections to American investors in the country,” said President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to the state news agency IRNA on Wednesday.
“What we reject are conspiracies, subversion attempts and the incorrect policies they pursue,” he said.
On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi plans to hold indirect talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in the Gulf state of Oman.
The talks are a first sign of new momentum to resolve the long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Araghchi told news agency ISNA that he wanted the talks to focus only on “ensuring the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of unjust sanctions.”
During his first term in office, US President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the international nuclear deal, which was intended to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme and lift sanctions in return. After the US withdrawal, Tehran stopped complying with the conditions of the agreement.