Iran Warns ‘Moving the Goalposts’ Could Derail Tehran-Washington Talks

 By Staff, Agencies

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has warned that making fundamental mistakes could disrupt the negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

US Special Envoy Steve Eitkoff on Tuesday said Iran “must stop and eliminate” its nuclear enrichment program to reach a deal with Washington.

The remark contradicted an earlier stance by the United States concerning Iran’s enrichment of uranium at a low level to produce energy.

Baghaei metaphorically described the US’s move as moving the goalposts. He said it “constitutes a professional foul and an unfair act in football.”

Baghaei cautioned on X that diplomatic shifts, urged by inexperienced hawks, might jeopardize overtures, viewed as insincere in the ongoing trial phase.

He said, “The American hardliners do not understand the art of a win-win deal, and impose their unjust will on the US government and the US negotiators.”

The US State Department echoed Witkoff’s latest statement about the Iran negotiations later on Tuesday, explaining that the US seeks to “eliminate” Iran’s uranium enrichment.

Washington’s unstable attitude towards making a deal with Iran indicates firm opposition from certain interest groups and lobbies within the US to making a fair deal with Iran.

Furthermore, hardliners and anti-Iran lobbies in the US and beyond have gone to considerable lengths to derail the negotiations, using fear, misinformation, character assassination, and psychological tactics.