The negotiations planned for this weekend between Washington and Tehran on the Iranian nuclear project have been canceled, Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on Saturday.
“The Iran US talks scheduled to be held in Muscat this Sunday will not now take place. But diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace,” Badr tweeted.
Negotiations with the United States have become “meaningless” after Israel’s devastating surprise attack against Iran, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Friday.
Accusing Washington of backing Israel, the spokesperson was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying, “You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime to target Iran’s territory.”
He blamed Jerusalem for successfully hampering negotiations and said that Israel’s biggest-ever offensive against the Islamic Republic would not have transpired unless Washington gave it the green light, according to Reuters.
The sixth round of U.S.-Iran talks was slated to take place on June 15 in Oman; Washington told the United Nations Security Council on Friday that it would “be wise” for Tehran to return to the negotiating table.
McCoy Pitt, the acting assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, said the U.S. will continue to pursue a diplomatic resolution that prevents Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and causing instability in the Middle East.
“As President Trump has repeatedly said, this dangerous regime cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons,” Pitt said. “Iran’s leadership will be wise to negotiate at this time.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a stark warning on Saturday, declaring that “Tehran will burn” if Iran keeps firing missiles at Israeli population centers. His comments followed a series of attacks across the Jewish state that left three people dead and dozens more wounded.
Speaking after a security assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Mossad Director David Barnea, Katz said the Iranian regime would face serious consequences.
“The Iranian dictator is turning Iranian citizens into hostages and creating a reality in which they—especially the residents of Tehran—will pay a heavy price for the criminal harm to Israeli citizens,” he said.
“If [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” he warned.