Iran’s FM: We don’t know how we can trust US, negotiations may have been cover for Israeli attack

Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran doubts it can trust Washington to honestly engage in diplomacy in a bid to end the open war with Israel.

Speaking to NBC News in Geneva, where he met with European leaders to try to find a path out of the conflict, Abbas Araghchi voices suspicion that the US only used previous negotiations with the Islamic Republic as “cover” for Israel’s offensive.

“They had perhaps this plan in their mind, and they just needed negotiations perhaps to cover it up,” Araghchi says. “We don’t know how we can trust them anymore. What they did was, in fact, a betrayal to diplomacy.”

He repeats Tehran’s position that “We’re not prepared to negotiate with them anymore, as long as the aggression continues.”

He also maintains Iran’s refusal to stop uranium enrichment, saying he told US envoy Steve Witkoff “several times zero enrichment is impossible.”

In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said they don’t know how they can trust the US anymore after their “betrayal to diplomacy” pic.twitter.com/BkSJiVaDsq

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“This is an achievement of our own scientists. It’s a question of national pride and dignity,” he says.

Araghchi also asserts that contacts with Witkoff are continuing to some extent despite the war.

“There are some direct messages, some indirect messages we’re exchanging,” he states. “And we have explained each other’s positions to each other in order to prevent misunderstandings.”