Pezeshkian says Iran ‘has no trust’ in U.S. negotiations

U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day roadmap to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran no longer trusts negotiations with Washington.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Tehran does not trust negotiations with Washington.“We have no trust in the American side and do not know on what basis an understanding can be reached with it,” Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera in an interview. Pezeshkian and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travelled to the United States this week for the United Nations General Assembly, where Tehran, through Qatar, proposed a seven-day roadmap that would see fighting end while reopening the Strait of Hormuz.Under the proposal, the U.S. would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, release an estimated $12bn in frozen Iranian assets and observe a ceasefire covering the region, including Lebanon and Yemen.Iran would then reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passed before the war.Araghchi said on Friday that the initial steps would take four to five days, followed by the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on the sixth day. “On day seven, the talks with the U.S. will be started for the final deal on mutually agreed subjects,” he said, referring to Iran’s nuclear programme.Pezeshkian said Qatar and Pakistan were currently conveying messages between Tehran and Washington. He said the negotiations were based on a memorandum of understanding reached by the two sides in June and that Washington needed to clarify its position on the agreement, which lapsed last month.However, U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected the proposal, according to unnamed U.S. officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.Questioning the value of direct talks with Washington, Pezeshkian said, “When we signed the agreement previously, they did not implement it”.Pezeshkian said the Strait of Hormuz crisis could be resolved through negotiations rather than force and rejected the suggestion that Iran alone was responsible for blocking the waterway. “The closure of the Strait of Hormuz becomes natural when the routes are cut off against Iran,” he said.He said the waterway would reopen to commercial shipping if negotiations resulted in an end to the war. Iran has described the reopening of the strait as part of its proposed seven-day roadmap, while the waterway has become a major point of leverage in the conflict.Pezeshkian also held the U.S. and Israel responsible of initiating the conflict and said Iran had acted in response to attacks against it. “We have not attacked any country in 200 years,” he said, adding that Iran had withstood U.S. and Israeli attacks and would continue to stand firm.He said Israel and the U.S. had used the airspace of Islamic countries to attack Iran, while Tehran targeted U.S. military bases in the region because, he said, operations against Iran were launched from those bases. Pezeshkian said Iran sought no action outside international law and responded when other parties violated it.The Iranian president also criticised sanctions imposed on his country and drew a comparison with the situation in Gaza. “Those who deny Iranians medicine and raw materials are the same people who cut off food and water from Gaza,” he said, adding that those who believed sanctions would force Iran to retreat had “miscalculated”.Pezeshkian called for regional countries to take greater responsibility for their own security, saying the region did not need outside intervention. “We do not need a regional policeman,” he said.He said Saudi Arabia could play a role in bringing countries in the Islamic world together and urged regional states to resolve disputes through dialogue. On Yemen, Pezeshkian said the actions of the Houthis were not connected to Iran and that Tehran stood with “everyone subjected to injustice”.He also offered Iran’s assistance in resolving tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, saying, “A brother should not fight his brother.” “We will not be warmongers,” he said.On domestic affairs, Pezeshkian accused Iran’s “enemies” of attempting to create divisions among officials and said the country was experiencing “unprecedented unity and cohesion”.He said he had met Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei twice, with one meeting lasting seven and a half hours, and described the division of responsibilities within Iran’s leadership. “The leadership structure is to set general policies, while implementation is our responsibility,” he said, adding that government actions were carried out within existing laws.Pezeshkian said there were no major problems in the executive functioning of Iran’s institutions, although some delays occurred in matters connected to negotiations and issues awaiting responses from Washington and other countries.