Iranian news agency ISNA reports that parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has reiterated that negotiations with the US do not amount to capitulation, “compromise or passivity”.
In a response to a letter from Hossein Shariatmadari — the editor of the conservative Kayhan newspaper — Ghalibaf stresses that being Tehran’s top negotiator is “not a privilege for me, but a heavy test and a serious trust”.
“Negotiation … has neither intrinsic value nor is it taboo; it is neither absolutely good nor absolutely evil,” he is quoted as saying.
“Negotiation becomes meaningful when it is a means of advancing national interests, realising the rights of the nation, eliminating oppression, and consolidating the achievements of the resistance,” Ghalibaf emphasises.
