‘Maybe US wants to attack anyway’: Iranian foreign minister on Trump’s 2-week window; says Tehran can’t trust Washington anymore
United States perhaps has “something else in mind” and “wants to attack Iran anyway,” according to Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.“It is up to the Americans, the United States I mean, to show their determination for going for a negotiated solution. Or they have something else their mind and they want to attack Iran anyway,” Araghchi told NBC News.This was after the interviewer sought Araghchi’s opinion on whether the ongoing Iran-Israel crisis could be resolved diplomatically in the next two weeks, referring to the window US President Donald Trump has given himself to decide on his next course of action in the conflict.Further, the Iranian minister accused Washington of “betraying” diplomacy.“So they (America) had perhaps this plan in their mind, and they just needed negotiations perhaps to cover it up. We don’t know how we can trust them anymore. What they did was, in fact, a betrayal to diplomacy,” he said.However, Araghchi expressed his government’s willingness to continue negotiations but asserted that Israel would have to halt its aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic first.On June 13, Israel, a staunch US ally, launched pre-emptive strikes on targets linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme, two days before a sixth round of negotiations between the US and Iranian officials had been scheduled to take place. While US officials said the Trump administration was not involved in the Israeli military operation, the Republican leader later indicated he was aware of the plan.He reportedly even vetoed Israel’s plan to kill Ayatollah Khameini, the Iranian supreme leader.
