There’ll be no ceasefire talks between Iran and Israel under current conditions. The Iranians informed Qatari and Omani mediators that they will only pursue serious negotiations once Iran has completed its response to the Israeli pre-emptive strikes, an unnamed official briefed on the communications told Reuters on June 15. Iran made “clear that it will not negotiate while under attack,” the official said. The official told Reuters that media reports claiming that Iran appealed to Oman and Qatar to engage the U.S. to broker a ceasefire and renew nuclear talks were inaccurate.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides claimed yesterday that Iran has asked Cyprus to convey “some messages” to Israel but without clarifying the nature of the messages or who they were directed to.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has by no means sent such a message, and this claim is basically false,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a post on X in response to media claims on Iran’s call for Cyprus mediation, reported Mehr News. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has not sent any message to Israel through any country.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said yesterday the Islamic Republic does not want war to spread to other countries in the region, adding that Iranian missile strikes at Israel were in self-defense and would stop if the Israeli regime halted its aggression. He said the Israeli aggression was “a major strategic mistake that most likely carried out with prior intent and with the aim of spreading the war beyond Iranian territory. ‘The Persian Gulf is a very sensitive and complex region, and any military developments there could involve not only the entire region, but also the world,’ he warned, insisting that Iran did not want the conflict to spread,” reported IRNA.
Israel’s unprovoked deadly airstrikes since June 13 “have been unprecedented and are considered clear aggression against Iranian territory,” he said, adding that “the Zionist regime struck various targets, the most important of which were the nuclear facility in Natanz as well as residential areas in Tehran and other cities.”
Emphasizing that Israel does not recognize any boundaries, the top diplomat said the regime assassinated a number of university professors, nuclear scientists and military commanders who were not on the battlefield but in their homes.
