Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says US President Donald Trump betrayed both the indirect negotiations with Tehran and the American people by launching unprovoked aggression against Iran.
In a post published on social media platform X on Wednesday, Araghchi said, “When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met. The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite.”
“Mr. Trump betrayed diplomacy and Americans who elected him,” added the top diplomat.
Iran and the US were in the midst of indirect negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program, with Iranian negotiators and the Omani mediators expressing strong hope that an agreement could be reached.
On Friday, one day before the Israeli-US aggression against Iran and immediately after the third round of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, Omani diplomats went so far as to say that a new comprehensive agreement was closer than ever.
However, on Saturday, Israeli and US armed forces launched a series of attacks against strategic targets across Iran, killing several senior officials.
Trump’s especial envoy to West Asia Steve Witkoff, head of the US negotiating team, had earlier tried to pave the way for the US aggression on Iran by falsely claiming that it was the Iranian side that had undermined the process.
However, a diplomat familiar with the process of the negotiations told MS NOW that Witkoff’s claims are completely false and Iranians were open to a fair but comprehensive agreement with the US.
“I can categorically state that this is inaccurate,” said the diplomat, referring to Witkoff’s account.
According to the Persian Gulf diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Iranian delegation had told Witkoff during indirect negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program that Tehran enriched the uranium after Trump pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear agreement brokered by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Scores of Iranian cities have been targeted in the US-Israeli aggression. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was assassinated in the Saturday attack.
Since then, Iranian armed forces have swiftly and decisively retaliated against these strikes by launching barrages of missile and drones against Israeli-occupied territories as well as on US bases in region.
Iranian officials have stated that targeting US military bases in the region constitutes “legitimate self-defense.”
Referring to Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, they said that Iran has the legal right to defend itself against “acts of aggression” by the US or the Israeli regime.
