Iran accuses Israel of trying to spoil nuclear deal with US
Israel is trying to prevent Tehran from reaching a nuclear deal with the US, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in his first press conference since the escalation between the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state on Friday.
The sixth round of talks between Washington and Tehran, which had been scheduled to take place in Oman on June 15, was canceled after Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Friday in what the Islamic Republic has called a declaration of war.
Iran responded by launching multiple volleys of ballistic missiles at targets in Israel, including the country's largest city, Tel Aviv.
The countries continued to exchange strikes overnight and during the day on Sunday, with Israel attacking Iran's energy infrastructure and what it called sites 'related to the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons project.' Tehran fired more missiles at targets in Israel, including near Haifa and Tel Aviv; at least 10 people were reportedly killed and around 200 wounded in those attacks.
In his comments on Saturday, Araghchi reiterated that the Iranian authorities maintain a 'firm conviction not to possess a nuclear weapon.'
However, he noted that 'those who are willing to deprive Iran of our right to possess the nuclear program for peaceful purposes, they have no right to do so.'
'This is a crystal-clear matter. The Zionist entity [Israel] is not willing to see us reaching an agreement or a diplomatic solution with the US,' the minister said.
According to Araghchi, a breakthrough could have well happened during the canceled talks between Tehran and Washington.
'The previous round of talks, the Americans presented a number of proposals, which were not totally acceptable to us. We presented our response and our viewpoints, and we were supposed to present a counter-proposal. Our proposal could have opened doors for an all-out agreement with the Americans,' he claimed.
Earlier on Sunday, US President Donald Trump insisted that Washington 'had nothing to do' with the attack on the Islamic Republic and urged Tehran to return to diplomacy, saying that 'we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict.'
The Iranian foreign minister said that Tehran does not believe the US claims that it wasn't involved in the Israeli aggression. 'We have evidence to the contrary,' he stressed.
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