US rhetoric at UN Security Council ‘publicity stunt’ to deceive people: Tehran

Iran says the latest claims by Morgan Ortagus, counselor of the US Mission to the United Nations, regarding the continuation of diplomacy and negotiations with Tehran were a “publicity stunt” meant to deceive ordinary people.

“The rhetoric of the US representative regarding diplomacy and negotiations is merely a publicity stunt aimed at deceiving people,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told IRNA on Wednesday.

“Unlike Iran, which has always adhered to ‘meaningful’ diplomacy, the US has shown that it has neither goodwill nor seriousness,” he added.

Speaking during a UN Security Council session on Tuesday, Ortagus said Washington remained open to formal negotiations but only if Iran agreed to direct talks and abandoned uranium enrichment.

She added, “We’d like to make it clear to the entire world that the United States remains available for formal talks with Iran, but only if Tehran is prepared for direct and meaningful dialogue. Direct and meaningful.”

“Foremost, there can be no enrichment inside of Iran, and that remains our principle,” she emphasized.

Ortagus claimed President Donald Trump had repeatedly pursued diplomacy with Iran, adding that Tehran did not take that hand of diplomacy.

Diplomacy does not entail sending bombers, Iran’s foreign minister tells US

In reaction to recent claims made by a US envoy, Iran’s Foreign Minister has said being open to diplomacy does not entail bombing the other party in negotiations.

Baghaei rejected the US representative’s remarks as a repetition of excessive demands that have no basis in international law or the non-proliferation regime, saying they are neither a “proposal” nor a diplomatic act.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, is an undeniable right,” the spokesman added.

He emphasized that the US must be held accountable for its blatant violation of the law and its aggression against Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities.

More than a week after Israel launched an unprovoked war against Iran on June 13, the United States also entered the war and bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, in a clear violation of international law and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Baghaei said Iran was engaged in talks with the US when the occupying Israeli regime attacked the Iranian territory and its people, adding that the US envoy’s rhetoric is nothing but a bid to distort the reality.

Iran had held five rounds of talks on a replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal prior to the Israeli airstrikes on the country in June. The aggression took place a few days before the sixth round of indirect nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.

Baghaei further said the Tuesday meeting of the Security Council was “merely a political move” by the European parties to the JCPOA -- the UK, France, and Germany-- to insist that Resolution 2231, whose legal lifespan has already expired, remains in force.

Elaborating on the legal status of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, Baghaei said that all of its provisions expired on October 18, 2025, in accordance with its own termination clause.

At the UNSC meeting, the European trio also sought to legitimize their illegal actions in reinstating the revoked resolutions, the Iranian spokesperson explained.

On August 28, the European trio invoked the “snapback” mechanism to restore UN sanctions, further complicating diplomacy to resolve tensions.

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