Iran Says Israel Trying To ‘Undermine’ Tehran’s Talks With US

According to Reuters, Israel is considering a 'limited' attack on Iran

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Israel was seeking to “undermine” Tehran’s nuclear talks with Washington, comments that came after a report said Israel was considering a “limited” attack on Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said a “kind of coalition is forming… to undermine and disrupt the diplomatic process” and that the “Zionist regime is at the center of this effort.”

Baghaei added that hawks in the US are also involved in the effort to sabotage the talks. “Alongside it are a series of warmongering currents in the United States and figures from different factions,” he said.

Last week, The New York Times reported that President Trump decided not to back an Israeli plan to attack Iran, which would have involved significant US support, in favor of pursuing diplomacy.

On Friday, a report from Reuters said that Israel was still considering some sort of “limited” attack on Iran, even though it didn’t have the support of the Trump administration. The report said that Israeli officials hadn’t made a decision, and it was unclear if they would go through with the attack.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if talks on a nuclear deal fail, even though his intelligence agencies recently reaffirmed that there’s no evidence that Tehran is building a nuclear bomb or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.

The negotiations between the US and Iran appear to be making progress as more talks will be held at the expert level this Wednesday to work out the details of a potential deal before another round of high-level negotiations is held this Saturday.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.