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Iran says US is not ready for ‘equal and fair’ nuclear talks
Tehran and Washington underwent five rounds of indirect nuclear talks prior to the 12-days-war.
Washington’s current approach toward Tehran does not indicate any readiness for “equal and fair negotiations”, Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday, after U.S. President Donald Trump hinted last week at potential discussions, Reuters reported.
Following Israel’s attack on Iran in June, which was joined by U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, attempts at renewing dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear programme have failed.
The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear programme as a veil for efforts to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran and Washington underwent five rounds of indirect nuclear talks prior to the 12-days-war, but faced obstacles such as the issue of domestic uranium enrichment, which the U.S. wants Iran to forego, read the report.
“The U.S. cannot expect to gain what it couldn’t in war through negotiations,” Abbas Araqchi said during a Tehran conference named “international law under assault.”
“Iran will always be prepared to engage in diplomacy, but not negotiations meant for dictation,” he added.
During the same conference, deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh accused Washington of pursuing its wartime goals with “negotiations as a show”.
Regional
Suspected suicide bombing at police station kills at least 14 in Pakistan, officials say
At least 14 people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, a rescue group and a regional police official said, as the country battles widening insurgencies.
The explosion took place in the Kabal area of Swat, a district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Reuters reported.
A pro-police rally of local residents was taking place in the same area on Sunday, but it was not immediately clear whether the rally was the intended target.
Fida Hussain, a regional police official, said the victims included five police officers and eight civilians. The 14th person was believed to be the suicide bomber, he told Reuters.
At least 18 people were wounded, according to a police statement. It said an operation had been launched to arrest anyone who may have assisted the attack.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in a statement expressed “deep grief and sorrow over the suicide blast”.
Regional
Bomb carried by woman kills three, injures 21 near Moscow restaurant, authorities say
A homemade bomb carried by a woman killed three people and injured at least 21 in an explosion near an upscale restaurant in central Moscow on Saturday evening, the authorities said.
The explosion occurred just before 2000 local time close to an Italian restaurant located in one of Moscow’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers at Kudrinkskaya Square, the police said, Reuters reported.
Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee said that an unidentified woman had tried to get into the restaurant but was stopped by a security guard, the state RIA news agency reported.
It said the woman, the security guard and a customer at the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant had been killed in the blast that followed.
Those injured received wounds of varying seriousness, the police said.
Russia’s state RIA news agency released video of heavily armed law enforcement officers at the scene, which had been closed off to the public.
The authorities did not name those killed or injured nor did they say who they thought might have been responsible.
More than four years into a full-scale war with Ukraine, Russia’s FSB security service said earlier this year that authorities would step up protection for high-ranking military officials after a series of assassinations and attempted killings it blamed on Kyiv.
The Kommersant daily newspaper cited its own sources as saying that the bomb had been intended to maim and kill guests who were enjoying themselves on the restaurant’s summer terrace outside.
It suggested that the bomb had been set off by someone else remotely and that the woman carrying it may not have known that it was an explosive device.
The restaurant’s website said the venue had been closed on Saturday for a private event.
Regional
Trump says he will hold off on fresh Iran attack in hope of quick deal
The Saudi crown prince spoke to Trump, a White House official told Reuters, but did not provide details.
U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Saturday he would hold off on a fresh attack on Iran as long as a deal could be reached quickly to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.
Iran and “other Middle Eastern Countries” asked for a time to complete a deal that would lead to “the Immediate, Complete and Total” reopening of the Strait and “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.”
Israel “joins me in this commitment,” Trump wrote. Israel did not immediately make a public statement on the issue.
Iran warned the U.S. this weekend against any “adventurous action” and said it would retaliate decisively if American forces followed through on Trump’s threats of fresh attacks on Iranian targets.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s comments in separate phone calls on Saturday with senior Turkish, Pakistani and Saudi officials came just hours after Kuwait’s army said it destroyed hostile drones launched by Iran against several vital facilities.
Speaking to Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Araqchi said Iran would respond decisively to any “aggression” and discussed the consequences of “destabilizing actions” by the U.S., as well as prospects for heightened regional insecurity, according to Araqchi’s Telegram account.
Araqchi later told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that any attacks by the U.S. and Israel or participation by regional countries in such actions would be met with a “proportionate response.” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke to Trump on Saturday and “expressed concern and asked for clarity” about U.S. plans for Iran, a U.S. official told Axios.
The Saudi crown prince spoke to Trump, a White House official told Reuters, but did not provide details.
Nournews, a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said on Saturday that U.S. attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure would prompt Iranian strikes on oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the gas fields of Qatar and Israel, saying, “all will be burned to ashes.”
At a cabinet meeting on Friday at the Camp David retreat, Trump said he believed U.S. negotiators, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, could still reach a deal with Iran, read the report.
But Trump also said he was losing faith in the Iranians, saying, “They break their word so often” — a claim Tehran has frequently leveled at Washington — and said he would be “hitting them.”
Oil prices have stayed high since U.S. and Israeli forces started the war with strikes on Iran on February 28. Trump has argued that his stated goal of keeping Iran from gaining nuclear weapons justifies higher fuel costs in the near term, but the economic pain has put political pressure on him to find a way to end the war.
Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 24% in July, and analysts polled by Reuters expect prices to rise further this year.
The risk of Iranian attacks has deterred most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, an important conduit for global energy supplies, since the start of the conflict, sending shockwaves through the world economy.
A government facility in northern Kuwait and civilian property belonging to a company on Bubiyan Island were hit on Saturday, with falling shrapnel causing material damage but no casualties, the Kuwaiti army said.
Adding to the energy industry’s concerns, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen recently began threatening the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait at the other end of the Red Sea from the Suez Canal, another export route for Saudi crude.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile that damaged the engine room. In the other incident, the master of a tanker reported seeing a large splash and an explosion close to the vessel, though no damage was reported.
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