Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday accused Israel of misleading the United States on a fabricated Iranian nuclear threat and called on President Donald Trump to change course.
The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program under a 60-day deadline set by President Trump earlier this year.
When no agreement was reached by the 61st day, Israel launched a surprise military offensive on June 13, followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow.
"Israel targeted diplomacy because its real fear is the failure of its 'Iran Demonization Project,'" Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on his X account.
"POTUS entered office promising to put an end to Netanyahu's bamboozling of Obama and Biden. It's not too late to reverse course," he added.
The 12-day conflict ended on June 24 after a US-brokered ceasefire, but global alarm over Tehran’s nuclear program deepened as 400 kilograms of Iran’s highly enriched uranium remained unaccounted for.
Tehran says the material lies buried beneath debris from US and Israeli airstrikes, rendering it unreachable, yet it has so far refused to grant international inspectors access to the damaged sites.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that Tehran had resolved to race toward building nuclear weapons after they launched attacks on nuclear sites in a 12-day war in June.
The characterization appeared to contradict prior public US intelligence assessments. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
In his Sunday remarks, Araghchi cited remarks by the UN nuclear watchdog's chief and Oman's foreign minister to reiterate Tehran's longstanding position that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
"In the past 48 hours, the heinous lie that the unlawful Israeli and US bombing of Iran was motivated by an imminent nuclear threat has been thoroughly debunked by the International Atomic Energy Agency Chief, who has explicitly stated that Iran 'is not and was not' developing nuclear weapons, and my Omani counterpart, H.E. AlBusaidi, an intermediary trusted by both Iran and the US, who has made clear that there was never any Iranian "nuclear threat"."
Enough uranium for ten a-bombs
The UN atomic watchdog chief warned last week Iran holds enough uranium to build ten nuclear weapons if it chose to enrich further, but stressed that there was no sign Tehran seeks atomic arms.
In an interview with Swiss daily Le Temps, Rafael Grossi said Iran’s stockpile includes roughly 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, just short of weapons-grade.
“If it went further, Iran would have enough material for roughly ten nuclear bombs,” he added. “But we have no evidence that Tehran intends to build one.”
On Sunday, former advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, Mohammad‑Javad Larijani, said Tehran has developed a new theoretical doctrine: one in which it chooses not to develop a nuclear weapon even though it is capable of building one in under two weeks.
