Iran suggests US using nuclear talks as cover for Israeli airstrikes as negotiations remain stalled

Iran is questioning its “trust” in the US to engage in nuclear talks as Tehran has refused to restart negotiations until Israel halts its attacks.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi accused the Trump administration of using nuclear negotiations as a cover for Israel’s airstrikes on the country’s nuclear program, claiming the attacks came just two days before a new round of talks between US and Iranian officials were set to start.“So they had perhaps this plan in their mind, and they just needed negotiations perhaps to cover it up,” Araqchi said Friday in an interview with NBC News.“We don’t know how we can trust them anymore.

What they did was, in fact, a betrayal of diplomacy.”He vowed that negotiations would cease as long as Israel’s “aggression continues,” flatly rejecting Trump’s demands to scrap its uranium enrichment and balking at his “two week” deadline to reach a deal. “I told him several times zero enrichment is impossible,” Araqui said of his meetings with special envoy Steve Witkoff, who he accused of contributing to a “lack of confidence” between the two nations. He later called Tehran’s nuclear program a scientific “achievement” and a source of “pride and dignity,” insisting that even if it were bombed and destroyed, Iran would rebuild it using the knowledge and technology it has amassed over the years. But Araqchi said US officials could resolve the issue with a single phone call to Tel Aviv to halt the attacks. “They can stop this process very quickly, and then we will consider diplomacy again,” he told reporter Andrea Mitchell during the sit-down. “They have asked us to negotiate, but we negotiate only when it is negotiation and not dictation.”Israel began its attack on Iran last Friday by taking out its top nuclear scientists and military officials responsible for the country’s nuclear enrichment program.President Trump earlier this week spent days behind closed doors vacillating b...