Europe offers Iran a delay to reinstating UN nuclear sanctions – WSJ

The sources said Pezeshkian was attending a Supreme National Security Council meeting when the strike occurred and confirmed that Iranian state media reports about the incident were accurate. According to those reports, he was hurt while escaping through an emergency shaft. CBS said it remains unclear whether he was deliberately targeted.

IRGC-linked Fars News Agency said the June 16 strike hit a building in Tehran’s Shahrak-e Bagheri district during a high-level meeting attended by Pezeshkian, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and judiciary chief Mohseni Ejei.

The outlet said six precision-guided munitions targeted entry and exit points, cutting power and forcing officials to flee through a prepared emergency hatch. It said Pezeshkian and others suffered minor leg injuries.

The report said the attack resembled an earlier Israeli assassination attempt on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Authorities are investigating whether intelligence used in the strike came from an insider, according to Fars.

Pezeshkian previously told US commentator Tucker Carlson that Israel attempted to assassinate him during the meeting. “They did try, yes… but they failed,” he said.

The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran killed hundreds in Iran and 28 people in Israel. Among those killed were Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, and Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of its missile program. The US also carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during the fighting.

“It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal, coordinated by the EU in 2015, not Iran,” Araghchi wrote on X after a joint teleconference with the foreign ministers of France, Britain, Germany, and the EU’s top diplomat. “And it was the US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead, not Iran.”

“Any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal,” he added.

Araghchi warned the EU and E3 powers to abandon “worn-out policies of threat and pressure,” referring specifically to the “snapback” mechanism, which he said they have “absolutely no moral and legal ground” to invoke.

EU urges immediate return to talks

A day earlier, a French diplomatic source said European ministers had pressed Araghchi to return to negotiations “immediately” during the same call. They also warned that if Iran does not make concrete progress toward a deal by the end of August, France, Britain and Germany would trigger the snapback mechanism, reimposing all UN sanctions.

The snapback, created under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, lets any party to the 2015 nuclear deal restore UN sanctions if Iran is found non-compliant. If no resolution is passed within 30 days to extend sanctions relief, all previous measures return automatically.

Tehran accuses US of using diplomacy as cover for war

Iranian state media reported Thursday that senior officials believe Washington is using diplomatic overtures to buy time for military preparations. “Our intelligence indicates Washington seeks talks to prepare for war, not peace,” an unnamed Iranian official told Press TV. The official also accused the US of trying to weaken Iran in advance of a broader regional conflict and said new talks would require firm guarantees.

US says Trump remains open to diplomacy

Despite last month’s joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, the Trump administration says it expects Iran to resume talks. “He has believed and continues to believe that diplomacy will work here,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Thursday. “They should be very grateful that President Trump is as generous of a man as he is.”

Still, US officials acknowledge there is currently “no prospect” for a quick return to negotiations, according to a senior official cited by journalist Laura Rozen.

Hardening Iranian position

Iran’s parliament and senior diplomats have said new talks cannot begin without clear preconditions, including guarantees against further military action. Araghchi and others have also demanded that any future agreement address issues such as Israel’s nuclear arsenal and accountability for the recent war.

Safai, who led the years-long push, said the resolution was approved at 2:30 a.m. with 135 votes in favor, 14 abstentions, and none opposed. “Today is the day that justice will be served, a day that the victims of this regime will always remember as a victory against their murderers,” she wrote on X.

"My resolution to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of the Iranian regime as a terrorist organization was approved today in the Belgian Parliament," Safai added.

She said the resolution not only calls for the EU to designate the IRGC but also urges “the unconditional and immediate release of Ahmadreza Djalali” and an end to executions by Iranian authorities. Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic arrested in Iran in 2016, was sentenced to death on espionage charges, which he denies.

Safai described the IRGC as “a murder machine that not only wages war against the Iranian people in Iran, but also spreads terror and murder throughout the region through its proxies.” In an earlier post, she said the IRGC is involved in terrorism, arms trafficking, and support for groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, and accused it of fueling conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

Safai’s proposal was backed earlier this month by the Belgian parliament’s foreign affairs committee. It had previously received political support from then-Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib.

The new Belgian government, led by Bart De Wever, reaffirmed that position in its coalition agreement, which said "The government advocates for the inclusion of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations."

The IRGC, a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces, was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019 under President Donald Trump. The US and Canada have urged their European allies to follow suit.

“Our intelligence indicates Washington seeks talks to prepare for war, not peace,” Press TV reported on Thursday citing the senior political official.

"If so, we see no reason to waste time and would rather focus on preparing for conflict."

The official was quoted as saying that Iran thinks "the purpose of the negotiations is to disarm Iran to make up for Israel’s weakness in the next war."

"Any new round of negotiations must include serious and practical guarantees to ensure the process is not a cover for security deception," Press TV added citing the unnamed official.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Iran's nuclear program had been dealt an irreparable blow by US attacks last month and that he was in no rush to resume negotiations with Tehran.

The Iranian official speaking to Press TV outlined conditions for any future negotiations with the United States, saying that discussions must address key issues such as Israel’s nuclear arsenal and compensation for the recent war.

“We must receive guarantees that Mr. Witkoff is a mediator for a solution, not a fire-starter for war. Providing such guarantees is very difficult, but we are ready to give (the US) one more chance and listen to what the US has to say on this matter and see its practical actions in this regard."

Steve Witkoff is the White House special envoy who engaged in five rounds of discussions with Iranian officials prior to the Israeli military campaign against Tehran, which was launched following the 60-day deadline set by Trump for a deal with the Islamic Republic.

Israeli air strikes and drone attacks during the 12-day war killed hundreds of Iranians including civilians, military personnel and nuclear scientists. Iran's retaliatory missile strikes also killed 27 Israeli civilians.

On June 22, the United States joined the war by striking Iran’s nuclear sites in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow using long-range bombers and submarine-launched missiles.

A US-brokered ceasefire was announced on June 24 between Iran and Israel after Tehran launched a retaliatory airstrike against a US airbase in Qatar.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei on Thursday called the claim "baseless and part of a media campaign against Iran.”

Yemeni forces fighting the Iran-backed Houthi movement have carried out their largest ever seizure of advanced Iranian conventional weapons bound for the group, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday.

CENTCOM said the National Resistance Forces (NRF) confiscated over 750 tons of advanced weaponry including anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads, hundreds of drone engines, air defense equipment, radar systems and communications equipment.

The NRF is an anti-Houthi force led by General Tareq Saleh, nephew of Yemen’s former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and operates independently of the internationally recognized government.

CENTCOM added that many of the systems were manufactured by a company affiliated with Iran’s defense ministry and included manuals in Farsi.

“We commend the legitimate government forces of Yemen who continue to interdict the flow of Iranian munitions bound for the Houthis," General Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM said in a statement.

"The interdiction of this massive Iranian shipment shows that Iran remains the most destabilizing actor in the region. Limiting the free flow of Iranian support to the Houthis is critic to regional security, stability, and freedom of navigation,” he added.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Yemen’s Houthis have launched missiles, rockets, and drones toward Israel and enforced a maritime disruption in the Red Sea, in what it describes as support for Palestinians in Gaza.

Last month, the group's rivals in Yemeni government said that Iran is transferring parts of its military industry, including ballistic missile and drone production to Houthi-controlled areas in Saada, Hajjah, and the outskirts of Sanaa.

The Houthis resumed attacks on the high seas following a June 24 ceasefire ending a 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

Houthi forces sank a Liberian-flagged carrier on July 6 with rockets and explosive drone boats. The group, which controls most of Yemen's population centers, says its maritime attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.