Iran has reported that it will not participate in talks with the United States on its nuclear program, scheduled for June 15. The decision was made after a large-scale Israeli strike on Iranʼs nuclear facilities.
This is reported by The New York Times with reference to Iranian state television.
Iran refuses to participate in negotiations "until further notice". In recent months, the administration of the US President Donald Trump has been trying to persuade Iran to sign the nuclear deal. Trump did not go into details about future cooperation with Iran, but noted that negotiations are necessary in any case — because of the threat posed by Iranʼs pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Several indirect talks between Iran and the US, mediated by Oman, have failed to make any significant progress. Tehran rejects the demand to completely abandon uranium enrichment, saying it is necessary for a peaceful nuclear program.
The United States and Israel engaged in a joint deception of Iran before the IDF strikes, The Jerusalem Post reported, citing a senior Israeli official. The nuclear talks scheduled for June 15 were part of the deception tactic, the official said.
However, after the Israeli strikes, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the United States did not participate in the attacks, but that Israel had notified Washington that it "considered the action necessary in self-defense".
The US President Donald Trump said on the social network Truth Social that he gave Iran "chance after chance to make a deal", but it failed to do so.
"I warned [...] that the US produces the best and most deadly military equipment in the world — without a doubt. And that Israel has a lot of it, and more to come. And they know how to use it. Some Iranian radicals spoke bravely, but they did not know what awaited them. They are all dead now, and it will only get worse," Trump wrote.
He called on Iran to make agreements to "save what was once called the Iranian empire".
"There is already great loss and destruction, but it is not too late to stop this carnage — because the next attacks are already planned and will be even more brutal," the American president added.
Iranʼs nuclear program has advanced over the past four years, and Tehran is now closer than ever to building a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has estimated that Iranʼs stockpile of 60% enriched uranium is enough for six nuclear bombs if enriched to 90%. Officially, however, Iran denies that it is developing nuclear weapons.
What preceded
The Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by the US, UK, Russia, France, China, Germany and the EU. They agreed that the Iranian authorities would give up their nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Iran nuclear deal and launched a "maximum pressure" campaign: new sanctions against the Iranian regime in order to obtain significant concessions from it.
Tehran resumed uranium production after Trump pulled out of the deal. Under Joe Biden’s presidency, Iran’s nuclear program has “advanced significantly,” Axios noted.
The Biden administration has been conducting indirect talks with Iran to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Those efforts collapsed in late 2022 when the United States accused Iran of making “unfounded” demands related to an International Atomic Energy Agency investigation into unexplained traces of uranium found at undisclosed Iranian sites. In the months that followed, the Trump administration maintained that the Iran nuclear deal was “off the table”.
After being re-elected for a second term, Trump renewed his “maximum pressure” campaign. In March, Axios reported that the US president had given Iran two months to reach a new nuclear deal.
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