Iran’s foreign minister says talks with US should be pursued ‘even if chances of success only 10%’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that negotiations with the US should be pursued "even if the chances of success are only 10%."

"The negotiations had several objectives. One was that we might find a way through negotiations to achieve our demands, and we should not miss that opportunity," Araghchi said in a televised interview.

"War has its own costs, and if any country can achieve its objectives through negotiations, it will certainly prefer that less dangerous and less costly path," he added.

Araghchi said Iran had considered negotiations worth pursuing even if the chances of success "were as low as 10%."

"We said that perhaps, even with a 10% chance, we could reach an outcome other than war through negotiations, and we had to try that opportunity," he said.

"We might not achieve a result, but at least we would have established our case before the enemy, the international community and our own people by demonstrating that we had tried every possible path."

Regional tensions have escalated since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive against Iran in February. Tehran retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Gulf nations hosting US assets.

Washington and Tehran reached a Pakistani-mediated memorandum of understanding last month to end their conflict and reach a lasting peace agreement, but tensions escalated again last week over the Strait of Hormuz, with the two sides exchanging attacks.