DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A planned new round of US-Iranian talks on Tehran’s nuclear program will not take place Sunday, as Israel and Iran traded blows a day after Israel’s blistering attack on Iranian nuclear and military sites.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran would not attend nuclear talks so long as Israel kept up its attacks on the Islamic Republic.
In a call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Pezeshkian said Iran favored diplomacy, but will not “accept irrational demands under pressure or… sit at the negotiating table while the Zionist regime continues its attacks,” according to a readout shared by the Iranian presidency.
Macron said in a statement of his own that he had asked Pezeshkian to “return swiftly to the negotiating table.”
The two days of intense attacks have left Iran’s leadership with the difficult decision of plunging deeper into conflict with Israel’s more powerful forces or seeking a diplomatic route.
Israel’s ongoing strikes have for now halted diplomacy between the US and Iran. Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on social media that talks on Sunday “will not now take place,” but he added that “diplomacy and dialogue remain the only pathway to lasting peace.”
Israel and Iran have signaled more attacks are coming, despite urgent calls from world leaders to de-escalate to avoid all-out war. The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Israel said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days also killed nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Iravani, said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded.
Iran retaliated by launching waves of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, where explosions lit the night skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and shook buildings. The Israeli military urged civilians, already rattled by the war in Gaza, to head to shelter for hours. Health officials said three people were killed and dozens wounded in several missile strikes in central cities.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Iran will pay a heavy price for harming Israeli citizens. “If [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that his objective was to eliminate any Iranian threat to Israel, but he also urged Iranians to rise against their leaders.
The US and Iran were scheduled to be in Oman on Sunday for their sixth round of indirect talks over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s top diplomat said Saturday the talks were “unjustifiable” after the Israeli strikes.
The comments by Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, came during a call with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat.
The Israeli airstrikes were the “result of the direct support by Washington,” Araghchi said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency. The US has said it isn’t part of the strikes.
There was no immediate word from the White House after Araghchi’s comments. On Friday, US President Donald Trump urged Iran to reach a deal with the US on its nuclear program. He warned on social media that Israel’s attacks “will only get worse,” adding that “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”