Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested for the first time that the Islamic republic's ballistic missile program could be up for negotiations with the US, a possible opening for talks as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington.
President Donald Trump has tried to open talks with the Iranians in an attempt to amend the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers.
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Trump has insisted that any new agreement would have to address Iran's ballistic missile program, but Tehran has rebuffed his efforts, saying it would not negotiate unless he lifted the sanctions he reimposed when he withdrew from the nuclear deal.
In his statement on Monday, Zarif offered an initially high price for negotiations on his country's ballistic missile program – the halt of American arms sales to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two key US allies in the Persian Gulf.
Zarif brought up the ballistic missile offer during an interview with NBC News that aired Monday night as he's in New York for meetings at the United Nations.
Zarif's comments marked the first time an Iranian official has mentioned even the possibility of talks on the Iranian missiles.
But the fact that he mentioned it at all potentially represents a change in policy. The country's ballistic missile program remains under control of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Since its 1979 Islamic Revolution and the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran has faced a variety of economic sanctions. That has cut into Iran's ability to buy advanced weaponry abroad. While Gulf Arab nations have purchased advanced fighter jets, Iran still relies on pre-1979 US fighter jets, as well as other aging Soviet MiGs and other planes.
Facing that shortfall, Iran instead invested heavily into its ballistic missile program. That's due to both sanctions and the memory of the missile attacks launched by Saddam Hussein during Iran's bloody 1980s war with Iraq.
In pulling out of the nuclear deal, Trump in part blamed the accord not touching on Iran's ballistic missile program. The US fears Iran could use its missile technology and space program to build nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, something Tehran denies it wants to do.
Meanwhile, Khamenei warned on Tuesday that Iran was going to retaliate over the seizure of a supertanker carrying 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil.
The vessel, Grace 1, was seized with the help of British Royal Marines earlier this month off Gibraltar.
Khamenei called the seizure of the ship "piracy" in a televised speech Tuesday.
"God willing, the Islamic republic and its committed forces will not leave this evil without a response," he said.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Saturday that Britain would facilitate the release the ship if Iran could provide guarantees the vessel was not going to breach European sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.
