Trump said last week that he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal.
Gargash was due to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Wednesday, Iranian state media said. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei did not give details about the meeting.
Iran is expected to hold a fifth round of talks with the European powers involved in the nuclear deal — France, Britain, and Germany — and has confirmed a meeting in Beijing on Friday with the other members, Russia and China.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday dismissed the possibility of direct negotiations with the US on his country’s nuclear program.
His remarks came a day after Washington announced fresh sanctions on Tehran targeting more than 30 vessels and people, including the head of the national oil company, accused of involvement in brokering the sale and shipment of Iranian oil.
The sanctions were the latest to be imposed since US President Donald Trump reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran, reprising his approach during his first term.
“There will be no possibility of direct talks between us and the US on the nuclear issue as long as the maximum pressure is applied in this way,” Araghchi said during a joint press conference with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
“Regarding the nuclear negotiations, the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is very clear. We will not negotiate under pressure, threat or sanctions.”
During Trump’s first term, which ended in 2021, Washington withdrew from the landmark deal that had imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
On Monday, Iran held a new round of talks with Germany, France and Britain about its nuclear program after reviving engagement with the trio, known as the E3, late last year.
Araghchi said he had briefed Lavrov about the latest discussions.
“On the nuclear issue, we will move forward with the cooperation and coordination of our friends in Russia and China,” he added.
With Russia too facing sanctions over its war in Ukraine, Moscow and Tehran have stepped up their cooperation in recent years.
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Iran of supplying Russia with weapons for use in the war — allegations Iran has repeatedly denied.
Araghchi said Iran and Russia’s positions on Syria remain “very close.”
“Iran wants peace, stability, preservation of territorial integrity and unity, and the progress of Syria based on the will of the people,” he said.
Lavrov, for his part, said “we will do our utmost to ensure that the situation calms down and does not pose a threat either to the Syrian people ... or to the people of neighboring states.”
China, Iran and Russia conducted joint naval drills Tuesday in the Middle East, offering a show of force in a region still uneasy over Tehran’s rapidly expanding nuclear program and as Yemen’s Houthi rebels threaten new attacks on ships.
The joint drills, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025, took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil traded worldwide passes. The area around the strait in the past has seen Iran seize commercial ships and launch suspected attacks in the time since President Donald Trump first unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
The drill marked the fifth year the three countries took part in the drills.
This year’s drill likely sparked a warning late Monday from the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which said there was GPS interference in the strait, with disruptions lasting for several hours and forcing crews to rely on backup navigation methods.
“This was likely GPS jamming to reduce the targeting capability of drones and missiles,” wrote Shaun Robertson, an intelligence analyst at the EOS Risk Group. “However, electronic navigation system interference has been reported in this region previously during periods of increased tension and military exercises.”
China and Russia in Mideast waters patrolled by US Navy
Russia’s Defense Ministry identified the vessels it sent to the drill as the corvettes Rezky and the Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov, as well as the tanker Pechenega. China’s Defense Ministry said it sent the guided-missile destroyer Baotou and the comprehensive supply ship Gaoyouhu. Neither offered a count of the personnel involved.
Neither China nor Russia actively patrol the wider Middle East, whose waterways remain crucial for global energy supplies. Instead they broadly cede that to Western nations largely led by the US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. Observers for the drill included Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates — with the Americans likely keeping watch as well.
However, both China and Russia have deep interests in Iran. For China, it has continued to purchase Iranian crude oil despite facing Western sanctions, likely at a discount compared to global prices. Beijing also remains one of the top markets for Iranian imports.
Russia, meanwhile, has relied on Iran for the supply of bomb-carrying drones it uses in its war on Ukraine.
Iran highlights drills to boost public support after Israeli attack
The drills marked a major moment for Iran’s state-run television network. It’s aired segments showing live-fire during a night drill and sailors manning deck guns on a vessel. The exercises come after an Iranian monthslong drill that followed a direct Israeli attack on the country, targeting its air defenses and sites associated with its ballistic missile program.
While Tehran sought to downplay the assault, it shook the wider populace and came as a campaign of Israeli assassinations and attacks have decimated Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” — a series of militant groups allied with the Islamic Republic. Syrian President Bashar Assad was also overthrown in December, further weakening Iran’s grip on the wider region.
All the while, Iran has increasingly stockpiled more uranium enriched at near weapons-grade levels, something only done by atomic-armed nations. Tehran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb.
Iran’s nuclear program has drawn warnings from both Israel and the US that it won’t allow Tehran to obtain a bomb, signalling military action against the program could happen. But just last week, Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking a new nuclear deal with Tehran. Iran says it hasn’t received any letter, but still issued a flurry of pronouncements over it.
Yemen’s Houthis renew threats to Mideast waterways
As a shaky ceasefire holds in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have threatened to resume their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connect the two waterways.
The rebels’ secretive leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi warned Friday that attacks against Israel-linked vessels off Yemen would resume within four days if aid didn’t resume to Gaza. That deadline came and went Tuesday. Though no attacks were reported, that again put shippers on edge. The rebels had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels in their campaign that has also killed four sailors.
