Israel strikes Tehran as US insists Iran talks continue amid denials
Israel launches attacks in Tehran while White House claims private talks with Iran are ongoing, contradicting Iranian officials' denials of any negotiations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed that public statements are "much different than what's being communicated to us privately", insisting that talks between the United States and Iran "are continuing and going well". This comes as Israel continues a wave of strikes against targets in Iran's capital, Tehran, which the Israeli military says are aimed at "infrastructure" of "the Iranian regime".
In response, Kazem Jalali, Iran's ambassador to Russia, has dismissed claims of negotiations with Washington as "completely false". In an interview with RT, Jalali stated that Iranian officials have repeatedly denied any talks and quipped that US President Donald Trump is "almost sitting in front of a mirror negotiating with himself".
Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Bagaei has said there have been no negotiations with the United States since the war began. Contrastingly, Washington not only insists that talks continue but is also deploying thousands of paratroopers to the region, with about 2,500 Marines recently arriving in the Middle East.
Additionally, according to Wall Street Journal reports, Trump is considering a military operation to seize enriched uranium at Iranian nuclear sites. This scenario of simultaneous tensions — Israeli strikes, US military deployments, and public disagreements over the status of talks — highlights the complexity and volatility of the current situation in the region.
