Iran ready to dilute enriched uranium, rejects transfer abroad - Al Jazeera

The international affairs adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said US President Donald Trump should not present the ceasefire with Tehran as a victory during his upcoming trip to Beijing.

“Mr. Trump, never think that by exploiting our restraint today, you will enter Beijing triumphantly. First learn the ‘ABC of the new geopolitical order of West Asia,’” Ali Akbar Velayati said in apparent reference to Trump’s expected visit to China for talks with President Xi Jinping.

“We defeated you on the ‘battlefield,’ so never think you will be the winner of diplomacy,” Velayati added.

US-Iran talks are unlikely to make significant progress before President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, CNN reported, citing a regional source close to the negotiations.

The source said movement in the talks would “depend on the results of President Trump’s visit to Beijing.”

The source said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was “very likely” to attend the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in Delhi on Thursday and Friday, the same days Trump is in Beijing.

Araghchi’s presence at the BRICS meeting “is important,” CNN quoted the source as saying, adding that the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Egypt may also attend.

The report said Egypt and Saudi Arabia are among the countries facilitating backchannel dialogue between the United States and Iran, mediated by Pakistan.

“China is going to be an important player in ensuring that the dialogue continues,” the source added.

The European Union will expand its Iran sanctions to include those responsible for obstructing freedom of navigation, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

“In the Strait of Hormuz, the ceasefire is under heavy strain following Iran’s recent strikes in the region,” Kallas added speaking at a press conference on Monday.

She said EU ministers agreed to strengthen cooperation with countries astride the Persian Gulf after the Iran war and accelerate work on strategic partnership agreements with all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

“We are ready to frontload our security and defense cooperation,” Kallas said.

President Donald Trump said the Iran ceasefire was “unbelievably weak” and on “massive life support,” adding that it had only “approximately a 1% chance” of surviving after he reviewed Tehran’s response which he described as "garbage".

The ceasefire "is unbelievably weak. I would say, I would call it the weakest right now, after reading a piece of garbage, I didn't even finish reading it, they said, Am I going to waste my time reading it? I would say it's one of the weakest right now. It's on life support," Trump told reporters.

"I would say the cease fire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living."

Iran’s demand for war damages is among the issues frustrating US President Donald Trump as Washington and Tehran discuss a possible deal to end the war, the Associated Press reported, citing two regional diplomats.

The report cited diplomats as saying Trump was wary of the term “reparations” appearing in Iranian proposals because agreeing to it could be seen as acknowledging defeat.

One diplomat said Pakistan was working to broker a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran aimed at ending the war and keeping wider talks going on unresolved issues.

The diplomat said Pakistan had support from other regional countries, and that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir had been in contact with both sides and regional governments to help ensure the ceasefire holds, the war ends and the parties agree to in-person talks next week.