Iranian Foreign Secretary Abbas Araghchi rejected direct negotiations with the United States on Sunday as U.S. President Donald Trump said he prefers direct negotiations with the Islamic Republic.

Trump last month called on Tehran to negotiate its nuclear program with Washington, but threatened to blow up Iran if diplomacy fails.

The U.S. president said on Thursday that he hopes to engage in “direct negotiations” with Iran.

“I think it’s faster and you understand the other end is much better than going through an intermediary,” he said.

But on Sunday, Aragic said: “Direct negotiations would be meaningless for a party that is constantly threatening to resort to violations of the UN Charter and expressed the conflicting stance of its various officials”.

“We are still committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations,” he added.

“Iran is prepared for all possible or possible events, just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiation, it will be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty,” Aragic said.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is willing to engage in dialogue with the United States “on equality.”

He also questioned Washington’s sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying, “If you want to negotiate, what’s the point of the threat?”

Nuclear Program

Western countries led by the United States have accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons for decades.

Iran rejected the charges and insisted that its nuclear activities were for civilian purposes only.

On Saturday, Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, said the country was “prepared” for the war.

“We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war,” the official IRNA News Agency report said.

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark agreement with permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States, France, China, Russia and the United Kingdom, and Germany, to regulate their nuclear activities.

The 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Integrated Action Plan (JCPOA), allowed Iran to impose sanctions on relief in exchange for its nuclear program to ensure Tehran cannot develop nuclear weapons.

In 2018, during Trump’s term, the United States withdrew the agreement and restored picky sanctions on Iran.

A year later, Iran began to speed up its nuclear program in line with the agreement’s commitments.

On Monday, Ali Larijani, close adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that although Iran did not seek nuclear weapons, it “has no choice” in the case of attacks on it.