Iran denies its missile program is up for negotiation

Iran denied Tuesday that it was willing to negotiate over its ballistic missile program, contradicting the chief U.S. diplomat and appearing to undercut President Donald Trump’s statement that Washington had made progress on its disputes with Tehran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran had signaled it was ready to negotiate about its ballistic missiles during a White House Cabinet meeting at which Trump said: “We’ll see what happens. But a lot of progress has been made.”

Pompeo appeared to be reacting to a comment by Iran’s foreign minister that Tehran would discuss its missile program after Washington stopped arming allies the UAE and Saudi Arabia, something the United States is unlikely to do.

His assessment drew a quick denial from the spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, who posted on Twitter: “Iran’s missiles ... are absolutely and under no condition negotiable with anyone or any country, period.”

The exchanges came hours after Iran’s supreme leader upped the ante in the brewing confrontation by warning that Tehran would continue removing restraints on its nuclear activity and retaliate for the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker.

Tensions have spiraled since Trump last year ditched big powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran under which it agreed to curtail its nuclear program in return for the lifting of crippling global sanctions.

Washington has since reimposed draconian sanctions to throttle Iran’s oil trade in a policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran to agree stricter limits on its nuclear capacity, curb its ballistic missile program and end support for proxy forces in a Middle East power struggle with U.S.-backed Gulf Arabs.

After the threats from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate authority, Trump struck a conciliatory note, saying the U.S. wanted to help Tehran. “We’ll be good to them, we’ll work with them. We’ll help them in any way we can, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon. We’re not looking, by the way, for regime change,” Trump told the Cabinet meeting. “They [also] can’t be testing ballistic missiles.” Pompeo told the meeting Iran had “for the first time” signaled it was prepared to negotiate about its ballistic missiles, suggesting this was the result of U.S. pressure. Pompeo appeared to be referring to comments by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Monday in which he said Iran would discuss its missile program only after the U.S. ceased arming Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Khamenei accused Britain, Germany and France of failing to uphold obligations under the deal to restore Iranian access to global trade, especially for Tehran’s oil exports blocked by U.S. sanctions.

“Europe made 11 commitments, none of which they abided by. We abided by our commitments and even beyond them. Now that we’ve begun to reduce our commitments, they oppose it,” Khamenei said, according to his website. “We have started to reduce our commitments and this trend shall continue,” he said in remarks carried by state TV.