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Netanyahu trying to dictate US policy in talks: Araghchi
Trump says negotiations going ‘very well’
Iran’s top diplomat said Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to dictate US policy in Tehran-Washington negotiations, after the Israeli prime minister called for the complete dismantling of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and the inclusion of its ballistic missile capabilities in any deal.
“What is striking... is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said any real Iran-US deal would be one “which removes Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons” and “bring in the prevention of ballistic missiles.”
The remarks came a day after Iranian and US delegations met in Oman for a third round of high-level talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, with both sides reporting progress.
“Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response,” Araghchi said on Monday.
He noted that Iran was able to thwart “any attempt by malicious external actors to sabotage its foreign policy or dictate its course.”
“We can only hope our US counterparts are equally steadfast,” he added.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who is also present in the negotiations, on Sunday reassured Iran’s parliamentarians that zero-uranium enrichment, Iran’s defense capabilities, and its regional power are non-negotiable.
Takht-Ravanchi was briefing the Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy on Sunday on the third round of talks which was led by Araghchi and US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. Earlier in the day, technical-level talks between Iranian and American experts also took place in Muscat.
Takht-Ravanchi explained that the Saturday talks in Muscat focused on building confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of all sanctions.
He emphasized that Iran’s nuclear case in the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors must be closed.
Since April 12, the two countries have launched high-stakes negotiations to resolve a decades-long dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
Since then, Tehran and Washington have held three rounds of talks in Oman and Italy, which have been described as “positive and constructive” by both sides.
On Sunday, the US president said his administration’s ongoing nuclear talks with Iran are going “very well” and that “a deal is going to be made there.”
“We’ll have something without having to start dropping bombs all over the place,” Trump said.
The next round of the negotiations is scheduled to be held on Saturday, with the venue yet to be specified.