Iran International
US Senator Chris Van Hollen urged Iran to engage in nuclear negotiations, saying it must resolve the issue diplomatically as President Trump signals openness to talks to resolve the lingering impasse.
“President Trump has said he wants to sit down and negotiate this with Iran," the Democratic senator told Iran International.
"Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable, so it's important that they be willing to resolve this,” the Maryland lawmaker added.
He was speaking before a defiant speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader on Monday in which the veteran theocrat appeared to double down on a hard line toward Washington.
Khamenei, 86, ruled out any cooperation with the United States, saying every US president had demanded “Iran’s surrender” but failed.
“Only if the United States completely cuts its backing for the Zionist regime, removes its military bases from the region, and ceases interfering in its affairs, their request for cooperation with Iran—not in the near future but much later—could be examined,” Khamenei said.
Iran denies seeking nuclear arms and says its program is peaceful.
The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year, for which President Donald Trump set a 60-day ultimatum.
When no agreement was reached by the 61st day on June 13, Israel launched a surprise military offensive, followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
Senator Van Hollen has previously expressed skepticism of military efforts to deny Iran a nuclear bomb.
“I have long supported the goal of ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. But bombing is not, in my view, the best and certainly not the most sustainable way of achieving that goal,” he told the Arms Control Association in a speech in September.
Van Hollen has said the window of diplomacy is still open in his remarks in September and there should be a coordinated effort to reach an agreement.
“The United States, the E3 (France, Germany, and Britain) and Iran should move swiftly to restart negotiations on a pragmatic, effective nuclear agreement,” he said.
Those targeted include economists Parviz Sadeghat and Mohammad Maljoo, sociologist Mahsa Asadollahnejad, writers and translators Shirin Karimi and Heyman Rahimi, and researcher Rasoul Ghanbari.
Tehran's reformist leaning Shargh daily reported that security forces arrested Sedaghat early on Monday morning after searching his home and seizing books and electronic devices, while fellow economist Maljoo was summoned for questioning.
“We still don’t know why this happened. Up to this moment my father has not contacted us,” Shargh quoted Sedaghat's daughter Mahtab as saying.
Shargh also said that Maljoo had been scheduled to appear before security authorities for questioning. According to his family, after his belongings were confiscated he went to the location specified by the security agencies.
The report added that there is currently no information about Maljoo’s status and the reason for Sedaghat’s arrest remains unclear.
In a July article, Sedaghat had written that despite the ceasefire with Israel, “we continue to live within the same rhetoric, the same confrontational tone.” He warned that Iran’s economy “has been caught in structural blockage” and that without political reform, it is “pushing the country toward systemic collapse.”
In a separate report, Shargh said Mahsa Asadollahnejad, a PhD graduate in political sociology, was detained on Monday morning while at her parents’ home after agents seized her electronic devices.
Her whereabouts remain unknown and she has not yet contacted her family, it added.
Radio Zamaneh reported the arrest of Shirin Karimi, a writer, translator and researcher, after security forces raided her home in the morning searched the premises and confiscated her books and electronic devices before taking her to an undisclosed location.
Her family has received no information about the reason for her detention, according to the reports.
In another report, Shargh said security agents confiscated the electronic devices and books of writer and translator Heyman Rahimi on Monday morning.
Rahimi has been ordered to appear at a designated location on Tuesday for questioning, according to the report. No further details have been released about the reason for the summons.
Activists say Monday’s arrests targeted left-leaning intellectuals.
“The arrests of Parviz Sedaghat, Rasoul Ghanbari, Mahsa Asadollahnejad, Shirin Karimi and Mohammad Maljoo — all prominent leftist figures — show that the government is more concerned about the growing influence of independent leftist movements than about criticism from within the system (reformist or conservative),” Iranian Kurdish activist and journalist Kaveh Ghoreishi said on X.