Iran's ex-president Rouhani urges talks with US to ease tensions
Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said that reducing tensions with the United States through negotiations was a matter of national interest.
Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said that reducing tensions with the United States through negotiations was a matter of national interest.
“Relations with Europe, our neighbors, and the East and the West, even tension with the US, if we can reduce it, if it is in our national interest, what is wrong with that? Not only is it not wrong, but it is also our duty and obligation,” Iranian media quoted Rouhani as saying in a meeting with his advisers on Sunday.
“We must strengthen our relations with the world. Whoever is ready to negotiate, if we see that negotiation benefits the country, our national interests and national security, then we should talk,” he added.
Rouhani, who served as president when Iran signed the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, had described negotiations with the US as “necessary and obligatory” in an earlier meeting with his advisers on August 14.
His remarks come after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected calls by Tehran moderates for direct negotiations with the United States, insisting that Washington’s hostility cannot be resolved through talks.
“Those who say, ‘Why don’t you negotiate directly with the United States and solve the issues,’ are superficial; because the reality is different," Khamenei said during a meeting with his supporters in Tehran.
"Given America’s true objective in its hostility toward Iran, these issues are unsolvable."
Iran and the United States concluded five rounds of mostly indirect talks in May this year.
A sixth round was scheduled to take place on June 15 in Oman. However, it was suspended after Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 13, prompting Tehran to declare the talks "meaningless" and cancel the session.
On June 22, the US carried out airstrikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. A US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on June 24, which ended the 12-day air war.
President Trump told reporters in mid-July that the urgency to engage with Iran had vanished after US strikes.
Earlier, Iran International reported that Washington ignored at least 15 messages from Iran seeking renewed negotiations.
The judiciary has accelerated death sentences since Israel struck the prison on June 23.
Human rights lawyers said the attack gave judges a pretext for vengeance.
“A spirit of vengeance has taken over the judiciary,” one Tehran lawyer, who asked not to be named, told the Times.
“A judge told me: ‘Our generals and officials have been killed, and we should take revenge.’ He didn’t even allow me to speak.”
Motahareh Gounei, a 28-year-old dental student arrested for criticizing the state, survived the bombing in Ward 209. “I thought, ‘This is it. I’m dead. I’ll be buried here,’” she said in a phone interview after being released on bail.
Rights groups say many of those now marked for execution were jailed for protest activity, not espionage, and their cases rest on confessions extracted under torture.
Asghar Jahangir, spokesperson for the Islamic Republic’s judiciary, announced on June 29 that in the Israeli attack on Evin Prison, 71 people were killed.
“The casualties included administrative staff, soldiers, inmates, family members who had come for visits or legal follow-ups, and neighbors living near the prison,” he said.
From ‘Evin University’ to collective punishment
Evin has long been notorious for torture yet also carried symbolic weight for the opposition. Political detainees staged hunger strikes, organized discussions and even confronted judges visiting the prison. It became known among activists as Evin University.
That fragile space was erased by the airstrike. The following day, authorities transferred 61 women to Qarchak, a facility notorious for disease and overcrowding.
“Since we were transferred to Qarchak, we’ve lost the right to work in workshops and to cover our living expenses. That means we can no longer buy groceries and are forced to eat the prison’s food, which is mostly plain rice,” one inmate said in a monitored call.
Gounei was later moved to an intelligence-run safe house. “Your name isn’t recorded anywhere,” she said. “My interrogator told me: ‘I’ll rape you and dump your body in the desert.’”
Rising executions
Iran Human Rights, an NGO, recorded 511 executions in the first five months of 2025, nearly double the same period last year. The judiciary has announced 700 arrests for alleged espionage during the war, vowing to show “no mercy.”
Male inmates from Evin have also faced brutality. About 500 transferred prisoners were returned in chains and beaten by riot police. Roughly 100 condemned prisoners were separated from the rest, including Mohammad-Bagher Bakhtiar, a 67-year-old former Revolutionary Guard commander turned dissident.
His son, Ali Reza, said: “Since the transfer to Evin, due to lack of access to medical staff, the full extent of the injuries to my father and other detainees is still unknown.”
Israel said its strikes on Evin aimed at guards and were designed to embolden the opposition. Officials accused Tehran of exploiting the attack to justify executions while presenting the war as a domestic victory.
Deputy foreign minister for political affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi told editors of Iranian print and online media in a private meeting Saturday that the White House had disregarded Tehran’s messages about resuming negotiations, according to information obtained by Iran International.
In a similar session last week, deputy foreign minister for legal affairs Kazem Gharibabadi revealed that Iran had sent messages to Washington 15 times through different channels but had received no reply.
Britain, France and Germany on Thursday triggered a 30-day process - the so-called 'snapback' mechanism - to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in a formal letter sent to the UN Security Council.
Resumption of talks with the US is one of the three preconditions set by the Europeans for delaying the snapback of UN sanctions on Iran.
During previous talks with the US brokered by Oman, Iran refused to accept limits on its uranium enrichment program. US special envoy Steve Witkoff presented proposals after several rounds, but they were all rejected as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei insisted that enrichment inside Iran was a red line.
The Trump administration had set a 60-day deadline to secure a nuclear agreement with Iran. On day 61 or June 13, with four rounds of negotiations completed and a fifth looming, Israel launched a surprise military attack on Iran.
After the conflict, Washington declared that a deal was possible only if Iran agreed to “zero enrichment” on its soil, a condition Iranian officials continue to reject.
US in no rush for talks
President Trump told reporters in mid-July that the urgency to engage with Iran had vanished after US strikes.
“They would like to talk. I’m in no rush to talk because we obliterated their site,” Trump told reporters, implying he was content to let pressure build.
Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said on August 12 that Iran was ready for direct talks with the US “under the right conditions” to preserve mutual interests, but his remarks were quickly dismissed by Khamenei.
On August 24, the Supreme Leader again attacked advocates of direct negotiations, describing America’s enmity as “unsolvable.”
“Those who say, ‘Why don’t you negotiate directly with the United States and solve the issues,’ are superficial; because the reality is different," Khamenei said during a meeting with his supporters in Tehran.
"Given America’s true objective in its hostility toward Iran, these issues are unsolvable."
