insisting it will not be intimidated by the threat of war with the United States. The minister, Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran attended by AFP, that Tehran had little trust in Washington and even doubted that the US side was taking renewed negotiations seriously.

"Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up, even if a  war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behaviour," Araghchi "Their military deployment in the region does not scare us," he said, referring to the arrival of an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, in the Arabian Sea. The United States and Iran reopened negotiations on Friday, for the first  time in years, in Oman.

Iran is seeking to have US economic sanctions on the country lifted, in exchange for what Araghchi said at the forum could be "a series of confidence-building measures concerning the nuclear programme." Western countries and Israel, thought to be the Middle East's only country with nuclear weapons, say Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear bomb, which the Islamic republic denies. "They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not looking for one. Our atomic bomb  is the power to say 'no' to the great powers," Araghchi said. (Bssnews)