Iran was negotiating with Trump team for past two years, lawmaker says

Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities made the United States enter into negotiations, the Kayhan newspaper, which is seen as reflecting the views of Supreme Leader's office, argued in its analysis.

In an article on Sunday titled "Negotiation and the History Ahead," the hardline daily characterized negotiations, sanctions, and war as a historical toolkit used by "colonialists" to exert pressure, suggesting that unrealistic threats, or bluffs, are the most effective component of this strategy.

“They don’t have the stomach for another war – they only scare to gain concessions.”

The article also criticized what it called the "dual behavior of some insiders," accusing them of labeling critics who advocate for preserving national interests as "sanctions profiteers" while allegedly profiting from market volatility themselves.

Kayhan said that this group uses the ongoing negotiations as a pretext to manipulate Iran's economy by making it conditional on external factors and to deceive the public.

The Islamic Republic is compelled to yield to demands made by the United States in ongoing negotiations primarily because the US retains the option of military action, according to Jalil Roshandel, a professor of international relations.

Roshandel told Iran International that the goals in the talks see Tehran seeking relief from sanctions and financial difficulties, while Washington aims to strip Iran of any military capability.

Roshandel said that “the potential for a US military strike always exists over the Islamic Republic's head," serving as an enforcement mechanism for US demands."It is for this reason that the Islamic Republic is forced to submit to America's demands.”

A senior Iranian foreign ministry official is set to brief lawmakers on recent nuclear negotiations in Rome.

"Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy foreign minister, would attend the committee’s afternoon session to provide a report," said Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee.

Rezaei told reporters the briefing would focus on the course and outcomes of the talks with the United States.

The United States conceded to all of Tehran’s positions during recent nuclear negotiations, said an Iranian lawmaker on Sunday.

“Our negotiating team said whatever we asked for, the Americans accepted,” Mohammad Mehdi Shahriari, a member of parliament’s national security committee, was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

This comes as talks between Washington and Tehran continue while no details have been confirmed by US officials.

The daughter of Jamshid Sharmahd, a dual-nationality detainee who died in Iranian custody, accused Tehran of using nuclear diplomacy to mask its brutality.

“The world may play your game a little longer. But history is shifting—and you can feel it. A regime built on hostage-taking, barbaric torture and executions cannot survive truth,” Ghazaleh Sharmahd wrote in a post on X, responding to comments by Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi about progress in US-Iran talks.

“Your Khomeinist Islamist Regime killed my father then mutilated his body to silence him. You cut out his tongue. But his voice speaks through us now.”

She dismissed the negotiations as a game and warned Iranian authorities: “I call it your countdown.”