The deal between Iran and the United States to end their war is “America’s declaration of defeat,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiating team, said on Wednesday.

Ghalibaf made the statement amid a continued clash over inspections at Iran’s nuclear sites, and ahead of a fresh round of talks between the countries’ negotiators set to take place next week. On Wednesday, amid those negotiations, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio kicked off a tour of the Gulf with a visit to the United Arab Emirates, while his Iranian counterpart spoke with a Hamas leader about the talks.

The talks follow last week’s signing of a memorandum of understanding, mediated by Pakistan, which formally halted the fighting between the sides and kicked off 60 days of negotiations on a final agreement, a period that began last week.

Speaking at a conference in Azerbaijan, Ghalibaf also said that regional countries alone should determine the Middle East’s political and security order, rejecting external involvement and calling for expanded intra-regional cooperation. Israel, which launched the war alongside the US at the end of February, is not included in the talks, and its officials have expressed alarm at the terms of the MoU.

“The Islamabad understanding was not the result of pressure and coercion, but rather the result of the resistance and authority of the brave Iranian nation,” Ghalibaf said. “That is why the Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of America’s defeat.”

He added, “We consider the withdrawal of foreign military forces from the region a strategic goal” because “not only do they not create sustainable security but they are also a source of instability.”

Pakistan said on Wednesday that the technical talks it has been mediating between the United States and Iran were set to restart next week, though he did not provide details on the venue.

“Talks will resume next week, I presume on Tuesday,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told journalists in Islamabad, adding that Monday or Wednesday were also possible start dates.

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© The Times of Israel