TEHRAN, July 24 (Reuters): Iran is ready for "just" negotiations but not if they mean surrender, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, without saying what talks he had in mind.
Rouhani seemed to be referring to possible negotiations with the United States. US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran last year but has said he is willing to hold talks with the Islamic Republic.
"As long as I have the responsibility for the executive duties of the country, we are completely ready for just, legal and honest negotiations to solve the problems," Rouhani said, according to his official website.
"But at the same time we are not ready to sit at the table of surrender under the name of negotiations."
Meanwhile, an Iranian source said that chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano was "assassinated" by Israel in collaboration with the United States, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
Amano was "eliminated" for refusing to give in to raise new allegations against Iran's nuclear program, the source told Tasnim.
The Japanese secretary-general of the IAEA was standing against the U.S. and Israeli "heavy pressures to open a false case against Iran on the nuclear issue," the source said.
Amano was under pressure to accuse Iran of violation of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), contrary to all technical and legal reports by the IAEA that confirmed Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, it added.
The head of the global nuclear watchdog died at the age of 72, reports said on Monday.
He had led the IAEA since 2009, and was due to step down in March because of an unspecified illness.
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