After Israel's biggest-ever military operation against Iran, the Tehran government announced on Friday that any current negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program have become "meaningless."
The announcement was made with bitter accusations that Washington had been an accomplice to the attack.
You cannot pretend to negotiate and simultaneously share work by letting the Zionist regime (Israel) bombard Iran's territory," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. "The other side (the US) has behaved in such a manner that dialogue becomes meaningless.
Baghaei also asserted that Israel had succeeded in influencing the diplomatic process and maintained that without U.S. approval, such an attack could not have occurred.
Tehran has before blamed Washington for being complicit in Israel's actions, which the U.S. has categorically denied. In a recent United Nations Security Council meeting, American representatives dismissed the accusation and called on Iran to revisit talks on its nuclear program, describing diplomacy as the smarter choice.
The sixth round of nuclear negotiations between America and Iran was to be held on Sunday in Muscat, Oman. The fate of those negotiations is now in doubt following the Israeli strikes.
Iran still insists on defending its nuclear activities as being for peaceful purposes, rejecting Israeli claims it is secretly developing capabilities for nuclear weapons. Tehran officials insist their uranium enrichment is meant only for civilian energy use.
In a Reuters interview, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that his administration had prior warning of the Israeli attack. Nevertheless, he said he hoped that a diplomatic solution was still attainable.
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