Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragçi in negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war in which new attacks threaten the fragile ceasefiresees no “tangible progress”. American president Donald Trump meanwhile, on Wednesday, he said that the talks are progressing well and could possibly be concluded this weekend, reports the French press agency AFP.
Aragchi said on Wednesday that communication channels with the United States remained open and warned that a possible new attack by Israel on the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its campaign against the Shiite Hezbollah movement there could trigger a renewal of conflict at all levels.
“Communication with the Americans has not been interrupted and messages have been exchanged about the need to stop the aggression against Beirut, but there is no tangible progress in the negotiation process,” he told Lebanese television. Al Mayadeen said Aragçi.
US President Trump, on the other hand, is in the White House on Wednesday gave a more optimistic forecast. “I hear that the negotiations are actually going very well,” he told reporters and estimated that they could be concluded as early as this weekend.
Consequences of an Israeli rocket attack in Lebanon PHOTO: Reuters
As he also said, he wants to separate talks on Lebanon from those with Iran, while Tehran insists on the connection of the two areas.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei today accused Israel and the US of trying to sow discord among the Iranians after they suffered a decisive blow in the war against Tehran.
In a press release issued on the 37th anniversary of the death of the leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiniread in his mausoleum, Khamenei emphasized that the malicious enemy is trying to sow seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and discord in the public. “In the fight against these evil intentions, everyone must with firmness, understanding, maintaining unity and cohesion… neutralize their sinister plan,” he urged.
Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, who was killed in Israeli-American attacks, does not appear in public and addresses Iranians only through press releases. In the mausoleum in the south of Tehran, on today’s anniversary, his portrait and the portraits of the two previous supreme leaders were exhibited.
Negotiations on ending the war stalled
On Wednesday, Lebanon and Israel agreed in Washington on the implementation of a ceasefire, which is conditional on the complete cessation of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel and the withdrawal of all its fighters from southern Lebanon. The parties are also expected to speed up the establishment of pilot zones where the Lebanese Armed Forces will take over the excluded control.
Negotiations on ending the war between the United States and Iran, which have been attacking each other in recent days despite a ceasefire, have meanwhile stalled.
As the war in the Middle East continues, Trump is showing off a whiteboard at the White House showing the size of the reflecting pool he plans to rebuild in Washington. PHOTO: Mandel Ngan/AFP
Among other things, Washington insists on handing over Iran’s highly enriched uranium, limiting its nuclear activities and reopening the Strait of Hormuz as conditions for any deal.
One of the most pressing topics is the issue of handing over Iran’s enriched uranium. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed on Wednesday during a hearing before the Congressional Foreign Policy Committee that it had been discussed, but that Tehran had not yet given the final green light.
Despite repeated attacks from both sides in recent days, Rubio reiterated that war with Iran or Operation Epic Fury, as the US calls it, is over. “We are no longer conducting strikes inside Iran to disable their military because the Epic Rage is over,” he said, asserting that the US had secured victory.
