Iran Rules Out Talks With US After Joint Strikes

Three days after the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, Iran’s representative to the UN in Geneva on Tuesday ruled out any conversations with the United States for the time being.

Tuesday’s explosions rattled Tehran once more, and worries about a protracted disruption to the world’s energy supplies caused financial markets all over the world to plummet. When asked how long the conflict might last, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump both provided ambiguous responses.

Reporters were informed by Ali Bahreini, the ambassador of Iran’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva, that Iran has not made any direct or indirect contact with the United States over holding talks to de-escalate the dispute or about reopening negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

When asked if there would be any negotiations, Bahreini responded as follows: “For the time being we are very doubtful about ​the usefulness of negotiation… The only language for talking with the United States ​is the language of defence.”

“I don’t think it is a time for having any kind ‌of ⁠negotiation from our side,” he continued.

The U.S. and Israel started their bombings on Iran two days later, murdering Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders and causing a regional crisis. Iranian and U.S. negotiators met in Geneva last Thursday, and Oman, their mediator, claimed that the negotiations had achieved progress.

Iran has replied by firing drones and missiles at Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab governments, as well as by obstructing shipping via the Strait of Hormuz, where massive amounts of gas and a fifth of the world’s oil pass close to its shore.

Netanyahu has stated that the battle is “not going to take years,” while Trump has speculated that it might take four or five weeks.

The Israeli attack was supposed to take two weeks, but it was proceeding more quickly than anticipated, a person familiar with Israel’s war strategy told Reuters on Tuesday.