Iran’s president mentioned Tuesday that he instructed the nation’s overseas minister to “pursue truthful and equitable negotiations” with the USA, the primary clear signal from Tehran it needs to attempt to negotiate as tensions stay excessive with Washington after the Mideast nation’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests final month.The announcement marked a significant flip for reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who broadly had warned Iranians for weeks that the turmoil in his nation had gone past his management. It additionally indicators that the president acquired assist from Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for talks that the 86-year-old cleric beforehand had dismissed.Video above: Iran warns of “regional conflict” if U.S. attacksTurkey had been working behind the scenes to make the talks occur there later this week as U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff is touring within the area.However whether or not Iran and the U.S. can attain an settlement stays to be seen, significantly as President Donald Trump now has included Iran’s nuclear program in a listing of calls for from Tehran in any talks. Trump ordered the bombing of three Iranian nuclear websites in the course of the 12-day conflict Israel launched in opposition to Iran in June.Iran’s president indicators talks are possibleWriting on X, Pezeshkian mentioned in English and Farsi that the choice got here after “requests from pleasant governments within the area to reply to the proposal by the President of the USA for negotiations.”“I’ve instructed my Minister of International Affairs, supplied {that a} appropriate atmosphere exists — one free from threats and unreasonable expectations — to pursue truthful and equitable negotiations, guided by the ideas of dignity, prudence, and expediency,” he mentioned.The U.S. has but to acknowledge the talks will happen. A semiofficial information company in Iran on Monday reported — then later deleted with out rationalization — that Pezeshkian had issued such an order to International Minister Abbas Araghchi, who held a number of rounds of talks with Witkoff earlier than the 12-day conflict.Khamenei adviser speaks on the nuclear issueLate Monday, the pan-Arab satellite tv for pc channel Al Mayadeen, which is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, aired an interview with Ali Shamkhani, a high Khamenei adviser on safety.Shamkhani, who now sits on the nation’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council and who within the Eighties led Iran’s navy, wore a naval uniform as he spoke.He instructed if the talks occurred, they’d be oblique originally, then shifting to direct talks if a deal seemed to be attainable. Direct talks with the U.S. lengthy have been a extremely charged political subject inside Iran’s theocracy, with reformists like Pezeshkian pushing for them and hard-liners dismissing them.The talks would solely concentrate on nuclear points, he added.Requested about whether or not Russia may take Iran’s enriched uranium prefer it did in Tehran’s 2015 nuclear take care of world powers, Shamkhani dismissed the concept, saying there was “no purpose” to take action. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Monday mentioned Russia had “lengthy provided these companies as a attainable choice that may alleviate sure irritants for a lot of nations.”“Iran doesn’t search nuclear weapons, won’t search a nuclear weapon and can by no means stockpile nuclear weapons, however the different aspect should pay a value in return for this,” he mentioned.Video under: “HELP IS ON ITS WAY:” Trump weighs response to lethal protests in IranIran had been enriching uranium as much as 60% purity, a brief, technical step away from weapons-grade ranges. The Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company had mentioned Iran was the one nation on this planet to complement to that stage that wasn’t armed with the bomb.Iran has been refusing requests by the IAEA to examine the websites bombed within the June conflict.“The amount of enriched uranium stays unknown, as a result of a part of the stockpile is beneath rubble, and there’s no initiative but to extract it, as this can be very harmful,” Shamkhani mentioned.Witkoff touring to IsraelWitkoff is predicted to fulfill Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and different Israeli safety officers on Tuesday, in keeping with a White Home official who was not licensed to remark publicly in regards to the talks and spoke on situation of anonymity. He’ll journey to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, later within the week for Russia-Ukraine talks, the official mentioned.“We’ve talks happening with Iran, we’ll see the way it all works out,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace on Monday. Requested what his threshold was for army motion in opposition to Iran, he declined to elaborate.“I’d prefer to see a deal negotiated,” Trump mentioned. “Proper now, we’re speaking to them, we’re speaking to Iran, and if we may work one thing out, that’d be nice. And if we will’t, in all probability dangerous issues would occur.” Related Press writers Aamer Madhani, Matthew Lee and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.