It is unclear whether the sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks will take place in Oman on Sunday as scheduled.
Iran says dialogue over its nuclear programme with the United States is “meaningless” after Israel launched its biggest-ever military strike against Iran, which Tehran accuses Washington, DC, of supporting.
“The other side [the US] acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime [Israel] to target Iran’s territory,” Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency quoted its foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying on Saturday.
The US has denied the Iranian allegation of being complicit in Israel’s attacks and told Tehran at the United Nations Security Council that it would be “wise” to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
US President Donald Trump has called the Israeli attacks on Iran “excellent” after initially warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against action that could jeopardise nuclear talks.
Trump on Friday framed the volatile conflict with Israel as a possible “second chance” for Iran’s leadership to avoid further destruction “before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire”.
The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was set to be held on Sunday in Oman, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes.
“It is still unclear what decision we will make for Sunday,” Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted Baghaei as saying on Saturday.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment programme is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Netanyahu has pledged to continue the attacks for “as many days as it takes” to stop Iran from developing a “nuclear threat”.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had warned Iran’s leaders that “it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come”.
“And they [Israelis] know how to use it,” he added.
Trump has blamed Iran for rejecting US proposals on uranium enrichment and has warned of more brutal Israeli strikes to come.
But Hamed Mousavi, professor of political science at Tehran University, told Al Jazeera that many Iranians think it is indeed meaningless to continue nuclear talks with the US when they are being bombed.
“The Israelis essentially killed the diplomatic solution and what was surprising was the Americans were fully coordinating with the Israelis in that regard. So I think it’s unlikely the negotiations will continue,” he said.
Mousavi said the mood in Iran is “pretty defiant” and does not seem to support Israeli goals of a regime change in Tehran.
“The Israelis were really expecting some sort of protest or riots in the Iranian capital by the Iranian people. That hasn’t happened so far. We don’t know if it’s going to happen in the future, but the mood right now is actually pretty defiant. I don’t really see that many Iranians sympathising with the Israelis.”