TEHRAN, Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday that Iran does not intend to engage in nuclear negotiations "in public."

His remarks followed the cancellation of a keynote address he was scheduled to deliver virtually at an event hosted by the Washington-based think tank, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Araghchi was set to address the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference, but the program was changed due to differences between organizers.

The conference coincided with ongoing indirect nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US, mediated by Oman. Two rounds of talks, held in Muscat and Rome, respectively, have been described as “constructive” by both sides.

Writing on his X account, Araghchi said he had agreed to deliver a keynote address at Carnegie before Iran and the US had finalized dates for the next round of talks.

“As I underscore in my prepared remarks, Iran has no intention to negotiate in public,” he stated, sharing a copy of the speech he had planned to deliver.

“My address also makes clear that certain special interest groups are laboring to manipulate the course of diplomacy by smearing negotiators and goading the US administration into making maximalist demands.”

The top diplomat said he is “accustomed to tough questions from journalists and ordinary concerned citizens alike,” but he did not want the keynote address to become an “open Q&A,” that would turn the event “into a public negotiation.”

“I regret that my intended host was neither cognizant nor considerate of these sensitive dynamics.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations earlier confirmed that the keynote address was canceled following the “organizer’s decision to alter the format of the keynote into a debate.”

For its part, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a statement that the Iranian foreign minister’s team had requested changes to the previously agreed format.

“The changes would have severely curtailed the ability of the moderator and the audience to question the foreign minister. As a result, Carnegie decided not to proceed with the session,” the statement read.