Iran says open to US investments

Iran is open to U.S. investments but opposes any attempts at regime change, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday, ahead of rare nuclear talks between the two countries.

Iran and the U.S., which have had no diplomatic relations for four decades, are scheduled to hold discussions in Oman on Saturday about Iran's nuclear program. Washington describes the meeting as a "direct” contact with Iranian officials, while Tehran refers to these talks as “indirect” through an intermediary.

The Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the ultimate decision-maker in Iran, “has no objection to American investors being present in the country,” Massoud Pezeshkian stated during a speech broadcast by state television. However, “we oppose their erroneous policies, including conspiracies and attempts at regime change,” he emphasized, regarding the U.S.

The Iranian government has long accused Washington of being behind attempts at interference and destabilization since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Pahlavi dynasty.

In December, Antony Blinken, the then U.S. Secretary of State, said that attempts at regime change in Iran had “not really been great successes.”

Western countries, led by the U.S., have suspected Tehran for decades of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran rejects these allegations and asserts that its nuclear activities are for civilian purposes only.

In March, Donald Trump sent a letter to Iran calling for nuclear negotiations to replace the previous international agreement, which became obsolete after Washington withdrew from it in 2018.

However, he also threatened to bomb Iran in case of diplomatic failure and imposed additional sanctions on the Iranian oil sector.

The 2015 agreement was accompanied by the return of Western investments to Iran and an end to its international isolation in exchange for curbing its nuclear activities. U.S. companies, however, largely stayed out of the Iranian market.

“We will not allow American economic infiltration, nor their political presence, nor their cultural infiltration,” the Iranian supreme leader had declared in 2015 after the agreement was signed.