Iranian president says Tehran wants return to memorandum with US

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that his country wanted to return to the memorandum of understanding agreed with the US in June, days after saying his country would not bend to Washington.

He welcomed China saying it wanted the agreement to be revived, posting on X that “Iran shares this approach and underscores the importance of returning to that understanding”.

Diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the Middle East war, launched by the US and Israel with surprise attacks on Iran in late February, have faltered for months.

The June deal aimed to lay the ground for a full peace deal but it quickly unravelled.

There had been optimism that talks might be revived during the UN General Assembly this week, but in a defiant speech to the world body on Wednesday, Pezeshkian said Iran would not “bend at the knee” to the US.

A day later he told Fox News that Iran did “not wish to continue” the war but it was up to Washington to end it.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi took part in a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner on the sidelines of the General Assembly, but their talks did not immediately yield a breakthrough.