US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Republican lawmakers are preparing legislation that would impose sweeping sanctions on countries conducting business with Russia, with Iran potentially included in the scope of the measures.
Trump told reporters the bill under discussion would target “any country doing business with Russia” and said he had encouraged lawmakers to broaden it. Trump made the remarks before boarding Air Force One in Florida.
“The Republicans are putting in legislation that – very tough. It's sanctioning, et cetera, et cetera, on any country doing business with Russia,” he said. “They may add Iran to that, as you know. I suggested it.”
The prospect of Iran being added to US secondary sanctions comes as Tehran faces intense diplomatic and economic pressure following the June conflict with Israel and renewed scrutiny over its nuclear and regional activities.
Iran has already been hit by multiple rounds of US sanctions on its banking, energy and defense sectors over the past decade.
US senators have in recent weeks revived efforts to advance a long-delayed bipartisan sanctions package that seeks to penalize countries purchasing Russian oil and gas and restrict international companies operating in Russia’s energy industry.
The renewed push follows continued Western efforts to tighten economic pressure on Moscow more than three years into the Ukraine war.
Tehran has deepened economic links with Moscow in recent years, including cooperation on energy, banking, and military industries.
Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref traveled to Moscow on Monday at the head of a senior government delegation to attend and deliver a speech at the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
He departed Tehran in the morning with several ministers and officials, saying before the trip that nearly 10 bilateral documents were prepared to be signed during the visit.
Both paths remain open, Abbas Araghchi told a conference in Tehran on Sunday. “Those who want to engage with Iran must decide which experience they want to base their approach on. We are ready for both,” he said.
Araghchi described the June fighting with Israel as a success for the Islamic Republic, saying the other party failed to reach its objectives.
Tehran, he said, rebuilt its defenses rapidly. “On the first day of the war Iran prepared itself for defense within hours,” he added.
Israeli media in June reported that Israeli forces struck 1,480 military targets inside Iran over the 12 days and flew 1,500 sorties in Iranian airspace. Israel, the reports said, dropped about 3,500 munitions nationwide, with Tehran the main focus of the attacks. Thirty senior Revolutionary Guards commanders were killed, Iranian outlets said.
Iran’s military capability, Araghchi maintained, has since been restored and added that the country’s nuclear program survived the strikes.
US President Donald Trump has insisted repeatedly that American airstrikes wiped out Iran’s nuclear capacity.
Requests to reopen talks with Tehran, according to Araghchi, have resumed because military pressure failed to halt Iran’s nuclear work. “They did not achieve what they wanted through military action,” he said.
He also said last week that from Tehran’s perspective there is currently no possibility of talks with Washington, blaming what he called the absence of constructive intent from the United States.
‘Armed negotiations’
In separate remarks on the sidelines of the event on Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said that any direct engagement with Washington would be conducted under armed conditions because Iran does not trust the United States.
“It would certainly be an armed negotiation because we are ready to confront any deception,” Khatibzadeh added.
“The Islamic Republic has always been ready – and has expressed its readiness – to act under those circumstances within the framework set by the Supreme Leader’s directives.”
Washington has been sending mixed messages through third countries about reviving nuclear negotiations, Khatibzadeh said on Tuesday.
However, Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran has not sent any new message to the United States.
Before the June war, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks.
Trump said on Friday that Iran now wants to negotiate a deal after the US strikes on its nuclear sites in June, arguing that renewed US military strength had changed Tehran’s stance.
“Iran is a different place” after the June strikes, Trump said aboard his plane en route to Florida. “Iran wants to negotiate a deal, too. Everybody wants to negotiate with us now.” This shift, he said, would not have happened “if we didn’t have military strength, if we didn’t rebuild our military in my first term.”
The US president earlier told Central Asian leaders that Iran had asked the White House whether sanctions could be lifted.
Iran has rejected the US demand for a full halt to uranium enrichment.