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Iran is uncertain whether Israel can trust the US in diplomatic talks after it launched an air attack on the country days before its scheduled negotiations with American officials, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araguchi said in an exclusive interview with NBC News on Friday.
Asked by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News if President Donald Trump could reach a contract with the US within the recently given two-week time frame, Araguchi said it was up to the Trump administration to “show his determination to go to a negotiated solution.”
However, he suggested that Washington probably had no real interest in diplomacy and only used the lecture as a “cover” of Israeli Air Force attacks.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragci was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell of Geneva on Friday. (NBC News)
During her briefing on Thursday, White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitt told her what she said was a message from Trump. (Promising any action or decision in “two weeks” is something that Trump often does. He has done so more than dozens of times in the last two months.
Our ally, Israel, began airstrikes last week two days before negotiations for the sixth round with Omani intermediaries. US officials said the administration was not involved in Israel’s military operations.
Israeli forces have launched airstrikes against Iran.
“So they probably had this plan in their minds, so they probably needed to negotiate it to hide it,” Araguchi said. “We don’t know if we can trust them anymore. In fact, what they did was betrayal of diplomacy.”
In an interview in Geneva after discussing with top European diplomats, Araguc said his government is ready to negotiate, but Israel had to stop the air attack on Iran first.
“We’re not ready to negotiate with them as long as the attack continues,” he said.
Aragut said Iran would not give up on enriching uranium as Trump had requested, and he said he made it clear to the US Empere on his mission to Steve Witkov.
“I told him several times that zero enrichment was impossible,” he said.
All countries have the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, Aragut said.
“This is the result of our own scientists. It’s a matter of the pride and dignity of our people,” he said.
As for Witkoff, Araghchi said it appears he cannot convey what was discussed at previous meetings.
“I think he’s a gentleman and someone you can work with, but unfortunately, he changed his words every time we met, so perhaps because he couldn’t deliver what he had promised us,” Araguchi said.
He added:
However, he and Witkov continue to communicate, he said.
“There are some direct messages and some indirect messages that we are exchanging,” Araguchi said. “And to prevent misunderstanding, we explained each other’s positions.”
He said, “It doesn’t mean negotiations. They asked us to negotiate, but we only negotiated if it was a negotiation rather than an oral statement.”
Araguchi also said bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities would not destroy the technical “knowledge” that Iran developed in its nuclear program.
“Suppose they’ll destroy one or two facilities,” he said. “Because the knowledge is here, we can rebuild them, because the technology is there. We have achieved what we can’t reverse ourselves and technology and cannot destroy it by bombs.”
If Trump decides to have the US attack on Iran, he said his government reserves the right to retaliation, as he did against Israel.
Iran has launched “hundreds of ballistic missiles” towards Israel.
“When there is a war, both sides attack each other. That’s very understandable. And self-defense is the legal right of all countries,” Araguchi said.
He added, “If the United States joins Israel in these attacks, we will do the same.”
Araguchi, who dealt with the Israeli threat targeting Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said such actions would “be the biggest crime they could commit,” but “they can’t do that.”
The supreme leader, who has held power in Iran since 1989, is an unelected Shiite clergy who holds the ultimate political authority in the Islamic Republic and is able to overturn an elected parliament and president.
Araguchi said Khamenei “has millions of followers not only in Iran but also in other countries.”
Trump said the US knows where Khamenei is but he has no intention of targeting him. “At least not now.”
Asked if he views Trump’s comments as a threat, Araguchi said: “I see it as a shame. I am amazed that the so-called superpower president can speak like this. We are always respectful of President Trump.”
Araguchi added, “It certainly isn’t acceptable in the way we spoke about respected leaders.”
To revive negotiations between Iran and the United States, Washington will only direct Israel to halt airstrikes on Iran, he said.
“If Americans are serious about returning to diplomacy, I think all they need is a call from Washington to Tel Aviv to stop everything,” he said.
“They can stop this process very quickly and then we will consider diplomacy again.”
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have increased the possibility that the Iranian regime will collapse due to the effects of Israeli artillery fire. However, Aragut said that Iran would endure a long war with Iraq shortly after the 1979 revolution and endure the current conflict.
He said Iranians have a long history of independence and that Trump “hopes to understand the pride and dignity of Iranians and us.
“We are a great nation. We have lived in that place for thousands of years. We were not a colony of other forces. We were always independent,” he said. “We are the cradle of civilization, the Persian civilization. So we cannot bomb all of these things.”
Araguchi was an experienced diplomat and was one of the top negotiators of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world’s great powers. The agreement restricted Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for ease of US and international sanctions. During his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the agreement.
President Donald Trump answers questions about whether the US will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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