US 'ready for serious negotiations' with Iran
Iran's UN Ambassador wrote that Tehran "does not seek escalation or war".
UNITED NATIONS (Dunya News) – The United States on Thursday said it is "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations" with Iran following the countries exchange of hostilities.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council, US Ambassador Kelly Craft said the killing of Soleimani was self-defense and vowed to take additional action "as necessary" in the Middle East to protect US personnel and interests.
The United States also stood "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran," to maintain peace and security, she said.
US Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans said administration officials had not provided evidence in classified briefings to back up Trump s assertion that Soleimani had posed an "imminent" threat to the United States.
But Iran s UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said the US offer of talks was "unbelievable" while the US continued to enforce harsh economic sanctions on Iran.
Trump has previously offered to hold talks with Iran without preconditions - and to meet President Hassan Rouhani. In September, Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would never engage in bilateral talks, saying it was part of America s policy "to put pressure on Iran".
Ayatollah Khamenei said that if the US rejoined a landmark nuclear deal it withdrew from in 2018, it could take part in multilateral talks with Iran and the other parties to the deal.
Iran also cited Article 51 as justification for its attack on US bases.
In the Iranian letter, Ravanchi wrote that Tehran "does not seek escalation or war" after exercising its right to self-defence by taking a "measured and proportionate military response targeting an American air base in Iraq".
"The operation was precise and targeted military objectives thus leaving no collateral damage to civilians and civilian assets in the area," he wrote.
On Wednesday, Trump again vowed he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and urged world powers to quit a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran that Washington abandoned in 2018 and work for a new deal, an issue at the heart of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran. Iran has rejected new talks.
There was no immediate reaction from Iranian officials to Trump s comments. The Iranian semi-official news agency described the US president s remarks as a "big retreat from threats."
President Donald Trump on Wednesday tempered days of angry rhetoric and suggested Iran was "standing down" after it fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq, as both sides looked to defuse a crisis over the U.S. killing of an Iranian general.
Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to hit back after Iran s attack on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, itself an act of retaliation for the Jan. 3 U.S. strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.
Trump said no Americans were hurt in the overnight attacks. The Pentagon said Iran had launched 16 short-range ballistic missiles, at least 11 of which hit Iraq s al-Asad air base and one that hit a facility in Erbil but caused no major damage.
"The fact that we have this great military and equipment, however, does not mean we have to use it. We do not want to use it. American strength, both military and economic, is the best deterrent," Trump said.
"Our great American forces are prepared for anything. Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world," he said.
Trump said the United States "will immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime" in response to what he called "Iranian aggression." He offered no specifics.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressing a gathering of Iranians chanting "Death to America," said the missile attacks were a "slap on the face" of the United States and said U.S. troops should leave the region.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had said the strikes "concluded" Tehran s response to the killing of Soleimani, who built up Iran s network of proxy armies across the Middle East. He was buried in his hometown, Kerman, after days of national mourning. "We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression," Zarif wrote on Twitter.
